Lindner
A German surname meaning “person from the linden tree / linden place,” or in some cases “person from Linden.”
The #4,765 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,565 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lindner is a German surname built from Linden-, the stem of words for the linden or lime tree, with the suffix -er, which often marks someone associated with a place. In older surname formation, it could mean a person living by a linden tree, from a homestead named for linden trees, or someone from a place called Linden. The historical sources here treat it primarily as a place-based name tied to Linden- forms rather than as a job name.
History
The name is documented in German surname scholarship as part of a large group of regional names formed from settlement or farm names. 19th-century writers especially note it in southern and central German contexts, where tree-based place-names were common. It also appears in discussions of names from place names in both singular and plural forms, which may explain its spread and several related variants.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Tree-based surnames like Lindner were often rooted in a specific farmhouse, field, or village landmark rather than in the tree itself as a symbol.
From the historical record
“Ortsnamen, die nur aus einer Silbe oder auch aus zweien besteben, abge- leitet, wie Ulmer, Wiener, Lindner (vom 0. Linden). So haben wir denn eine dreifache Weise, Familiennamen von Orts- namen zu bilden; alle diese drei Formen finden sich z. B. in dem berühmten Baseler Drucker- und Gelehrtengeschlechte der…”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen