Stutzman
A German-language surname likely meaning “son of Stutz” or “man from Stutz,” with the first element probably a nickname or place-based name.
The #3,862 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,614 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is best understood as a German formation built on Stutz, a short name or stem that can be linked either to a nickname or to a place-name element, plus -man/-mann meaning “man” or, by extension, “son of.” In surname use, that makes Stutzman a family-name form meaning roughly “man of Stutz” or “descendant of Stutz.” The exact sense of Stutz itself is not certain from the excerpt alone, so the name should be treated as broadly German rather than narrowly defined.
History
The only provided historical source simply lists Stutzman among related surnames, which supports its recognition as a German surname but does not explain the derivation in detail. In North America, especially among German-speaking immigrant communities, such surnames often became fixed hereditary family names and were preserved with relatively little change in spelling. The modern U.S. distribution, including a noticeable but not especially large number of bearers, fits a surname that has remained regionally rooted rather than becoming highly common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The ending -man/-mann is one of the most common surname-building elements in German and can mean either “man” or “son of,” which is why names like Stutzman often look more descriptive than they first appear.
From the historical record
“Strohecker, p. 316 Strohm, p., 318 Stutzman, p. 318 Siissholtz, p. 316 Summy, p. 318 Suter, p. 312 Swarr = Schwehr, Swegler = Schwegler,”
— Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names