Schweitzer
A German surname meaning “Swiss person” or “one from Switzerland.”
The #3,544 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,666 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Schweitzer comes from German Schweizer, a word for a Swiss person. It is ultimately related to the place-name Switzerland, and in surname use it functioned as an ethnic or regional label for someone from that country or for someone thought to be Swiss. Older English sources also treat Schweitzer as a German spelling of the same name family as Switzer.
History
The surname is found in German-speaking areas and later appears among immigrants in English-speaking countries, especially the United States. In historical English surname dictionaries, it is regularly grouped with Switzer and related spellings as a nationality-based name. Because many bearers later anglicized the spelling, the forms Schweitzer and Switzer can overlap in family history.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th- and early-20th-century surname writers often glossed Schweitzer simply as “the German for a Swiss.”
From the historical record
“Eng. Swart. SCHWEITZER j (Ger.) Switzer, Swiss SCHWEIZER y [Ger. Schweizer (z as te) : see Switzer in Diet.] SELIGMAN(N (Ger.) Blessed or Happy Man [Ger. selig, O.H.Ger. sdlig, happy, blessed] Eng. SMIiman.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)