Günter
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Günter is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 37th most common given name. Recorded meaning: Zum Rufnamen Günther (ahd.
- DEGermany≈1 in 241(inferred from the name graph)
- ATAustria≈1 in 970
- USUnited States1 in 325K
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 Günter 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.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 193 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 241 (inferred from the name graph)
≈330,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Guenter in US United States, BE Belgium, CH Switzerland and Gunter in CN China.
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)
Zum Rufnamen Günther (ahd. gund(a) 'Kampf' + heri 'Heer'); patronymische -ert-Variante. Bearer count not clearly printed here.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Günter 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #37 | ≈330,000 est. | ≈1 in 241 | 3 | Günter | 193 |
| AT Austria | #107 | ≈9,100 est. | ≈1 in 970 | 551 | Günter | 103 |
| CN China | — | ≈3,600 est. | ≈1 in 388K | — | Gunter | 7 |
| US United States | — | 1,022 | 1 in 325K | 25K | Guenter | 192 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈830 est. | ≈1 in 14K | 27 | Guenter | 66 |
| SE Sweden | — | 436 | 1 in 23K | 436 | Günter | 18 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈380 est. | ≈1 in 22K | 616 | Guenter | 43 |
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: the de-duesseldorf-vornamen register; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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)
Günter 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, from the Rufname Günter, from Germanic *gunþ- 'battle'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, German surname showing t/th variation in patronymic Günter/Günther; th-forms dominate in Ostmitteldeutschland, esp. south of Plauen–Zwickau–Chemnitz. Bearer counts printed.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus
In German, German surname; plate shows t/th variation.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus
In German, a male given name from Old High German, variant of Günther
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Vgl. den Rufnamen Günter; diese Karte zeigt t/th-Variation in den Schreibungen. 2815 Belege.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus
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)
- Günter Eichb. 1907DEGerman poet and radio playwright (1907–1972)
- Günter Behnischb. 1922DEGerman architect, submarine commander in World War II (1922–2010)
- Klaus Kinskib. 1926DEnot in their usual nameGerman actor (1926–1991)
- Günter Grassb. 1927DEGerman novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor (1927-2015)
- Günter Guillaumeb. 1927DEGerman intelligence officer (1927–1995)
- Günter Schabowskib. 1929DEGerman politician (1929-2015)
- Günter Strackb. 1929DEGerman actor (1929–1999)
- Günter Blobelb. 1936USGerman American biologist (1999 Nobel Prize)
- Günter Litfinb. 1937DEFirst victim of the Berlin Wall (1937–1961)
- Günter Netzerb. 1944DEGerman association football player (born 1944)
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 33 sources across 16 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2024 | 551 | #1,820 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 436 | #3,052 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 1999 | 294 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2000 | 292 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2001 | 288 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2002 | 283 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2003 | 279 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2005 | 276 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 180 | — |
| DE Germany | Stadt Düsseldorf Open Data — Vornamen Neugeborene | 2018 | 3 | — |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — Vornamen der Geborenen (1984–present) | 2024 | 1 | #2,496 |
| DE Germany | Stadt Leipzig Open Data — Vornamensstatistik Neugeborene | 2025 | 1 | #2 |
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name 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 Günter come from?
- Zum Rufnamen Günther (ahd. gund(a) 'Kampf' + heri 'Heer'); patronymische -ert-Variante. Bearer count not clearly printed here. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen.
- What does the name Günter mean?
- Recorded meaning: Zum Rufnamen Günther (ahd.
- Is Günter a male or female name?
- Günter is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Günter?
- In the etymology graph, Günther, Gunnar and Gunner are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Günter have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 332 thousand people named Günter in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled günter.
- How common is the name Günter?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,022 people named Günter in 2020, about 1 in 325 thousand residents.
- How common is Günter compared with other names?
- In Germany, Günter is the 37th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Günter?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/g%C3%BCnterThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (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, “Günter” — the 37th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.