Ziegler
A German occupational surname meaning brickmaker or tilemaker.
The #1,400 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,179 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ziegler comes from German ziegel, meaning a brick or tile, plus the agent suffix -er, so the name originally meant someone who made or worked with bricks or tiles. The deeper root behind German ziegel is traced in older scholarship to Latin tegula, "tile." In short, it is an occupational surname like "Smith" or "Miller."
History
The name is well established in German-speaking areas and appears in older surname studies as a straightforward craft name. It also spread into neighboring countries and among German-descended families, including in the United States. Variant spellings such as Ziegeler and the Dutch-style Ziegelaar are also recorded.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries often group Ziegler with other craft names like Zimmermann, because both began as labels for an occupation before becoming inherited family names.
From the historical record
“ZIEGLER (Ger.) Brickmaker, Tiler [Ger., ziegler; f. ziegel, O.H.Ger, ziagal (f. Lat. tegula), brick, tile -\- the agent, suff. -er] ZIMMERMAN(N (Ger.) Carpenter £f. Ger. zimmer, room, timber, timber-building; M.H.Ger. zimber, O.H.Ger. zimbar + Ger. mann, O.H.Ge*. man{n, man]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Ziegler
- Karl Ziegler (1898–1973)
- Maddie Ziegler (b. 2002)
- Géza Gárdonyi (1863–1922)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.