Mecklenburg

Locally spelled Mecklembourg in US United States.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Mecklenburg is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• German64%

  name for someone from the province of this name in N Germany, or habitation name from its capital, so called from MLG mekele big, great (cf. Meikle) + borch Medeiros fortress, city (cf. Burke). Theadj. retains the weak dat. end¬ ing used after the lost prepositional phrase to der'at the’. Vars.: Ger.: Mackelburg, Meckelburg, Mechlenburg.

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

  Mecklenburg (a historical region in Baltic northern Germany; part of the modern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  Toponymischer Familienname zum Landes-/Ortsnamen Mecklenburg; aus dem Burgnamen mnd. Mekelenborch/Mikelenburg, ahd./a.s. 'große Burg'. 6 Types/803 Tokens.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

• English5.4%

  former German state

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  county. NC. VA

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Mecklenburg is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• regional name for someone from the province of this name in northern Germany, so called from Old Saxon mikil ‘big’, ‘great’ -t- burg ‘castle’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburgb. 1524NOduchess consort of Mecklenburg (1524-1586)
• John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburgb. 1525DEduke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Schwerin
• Dorothea of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburgb. 1528DEDuchess of Mecklenburg
• Christopher, Duke of Mecklenburgb. 1537DETitular duke of Mecklenburg, and administrator of Ratzeburg (1537-1592)
• Duke Charles of Mecklenburgb. 1785DEGerman general (1785-1837)
• Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerinb. 1857DEGerman monarch and explorer (1857–1920)
• Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerinb. 1871DE(1871-1897)
• Duchess Marie Antoinette of Mecklenburg-Schwerinb. 1884ITGerman noble (1884-1944)
• Duke Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitzb. 1921DEHead of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1963-1996)
• Ernst Mecklenburgb. 1927DEGerman politician (born 1927)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Where does the name Mecklenburg come from?

regional name for someone from the province of this name in northern Germany, so called from Old Saxon mikil ‘big’, ‘great’ -t- burg ‘castle’. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.

What does the name Mecklenburg mean?

In German, name for someone from the province of this name in N Germany, or habitation name from its capital, so called from MLG mekele big, great (cf. Meikle) + borch Medeiros fortress, city (cf. Burke).

In which country does Mecklenburg have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 654 people named Mecklenburg, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled mecklembourg.

Where is Mecklenburg most common?

Mecklenburg is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 509 thousand people carrying it.

How common is the name Mecklenburg?

In the United States, the national register counted 654 people named Mecklenburg in 2010, about 1 in 509 thousand residents.