Schnitzer
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Schnitzer is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Occupational surname: woodcarver/cutter.
- ILIsrael1 in 12Kas שניצר(measured from records)
- USUnited States1 in 206K
- RORomania≈1 in 27Kas שניצר
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Schnitzer itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 39 (measured from records)
- 1 in 206K (inferred from the name graph)
1,615 people, 2010
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
United States
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled שניצר in IL Israel, RO Romania, PL Poland and 2 more.
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.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Occupational surname: woodcarver/cutter. Mentioned in the page heading.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Schnitzer counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 1,615 | 1 in 206K | 1.6K | Schnitzer | 39 |
| RO Romania | ≈780 est. | ≈1 in 27K | — | שניצר | 2 |
| IL Israel | 703as שניצר | 1 in 12K | 703 | שניצר | 28 |
| UZ Uzbekistan | ≈600 est. | ≈1 in 51K | — | Schnitzer | 3 |
| PL Poland | 238as Sznicer | 1 in 161K | 122 | שניצר | 2 |
| LB Lebanon | ≈110 est. | ≈1 in 48K | — | שניצר | 1 |
| LV Latvia | ≈40 est. | ≈1 in 47K | — | שניצר | 2 |
1,615 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: CBS Israel — Family names in Israel, 2017 ("שמות משפחה בישראל 2017"); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Schnitzer is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Occupational surname: woodcarver/engraver.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, carver
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Berufsname: Schnitzer/Handwerker; zu mhd. snitzen 'schneiden, schnitzen'. Bearer count: 1428.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, name for a woodworker, from an agent deriv. of Ger. schnitzen to cut, carve (MHG snitzen). Vars.: Ger.: Schnitzler. Schreiner 477 Schnitz(ler); Schnetz, Schnetz(l)er. Jewish:
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In German, tional name for a woodworker, from an agent deriv. of Ger. schnitzen to cut, carve (MHG snitzen). Ger.: Schnitz(ler): Schnetz, Schnetz(l)er.
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Ignaz Schnitzerb. 1839HUwriter (1839–1921)
- Joseph Schnitzerb. 1859DEGerman theologian (1859–1939)
- Germaine Alice Schnitzerb. 1888FRFrench pianist (1888–1982)
- Robert C. Schnitzerb. 1906USAmerican actor and arts administrator (1906-2008)
- Moshe Schnitzerb. 1921ILIsraeli businessman
- Arlene Schnitzerb. 1929USAmerican art collector
- Johann Georg Schnitzerb. 1930DEGerman writer (1930–2023)
- Werner Schnitzerb. 1942DEGerman actor
- Miriam Schnitzerb. 1977DEGerman tennis player
- Lukas Schnitzerb. 1988ATAustrian politician
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 26 sources across 16 countries.
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Schnitzer come from?
- Occupational surname: woodcarver/cutter. Mentioned in the page heading. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen.
- What does the name Schnitzer mean?
- Recorded meaning: Occupational surname: woodcarver/cutter.
- In which country does Schnitzer have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.6 thousand people named Schnitzer, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled schnitzer.
- Where is Schnitzer most common?
- Schnitzer is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 206 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Schnitzer?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,615 people named Schnitzer in 2010, about 1 in 206 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Schnitzer?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/schnitzerThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Schnitzer”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.