Schmidt

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation]

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ˈʃmɪt/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Schmidt is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 2nd most common surname.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 189(inferred from the name graph)
  • ATAustria≈1 in 951
  • CACanada≈1 in 2K

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 Schmidt 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)

≈420,000 people, est.

#404 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

3 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
552 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 189 (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

SchmidtLatin(measured from records)
ชมททThai(measured from records)
შმიდტიGeorgian(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Schmid in CH Switzerland, AT Austria.

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)

Schmidt = Smith in the US, the most common name in the western world, borne from Jews and non-Jews, in the Under Rhine district, 1809.

Sources 1

  • The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

How Schmidt is read(measured from records)

Schmidt 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.

  • English53%

    A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation].

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • German29%

    German surname discussed for d/dt/tt alternation and diminutive suffixes; page compares k- and l-suffix forms, especially -gen(s), -el, -lein.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen

    occupation name; here cited as a common surname in towns

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

    a common surname originating as an occupation, equivalent to English Smith

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

    zu mhd. smid/Schmied ‘Metallarbeiter’; zeigt dt-Varianz in Schmidt- (18 Typen/1417 Belege).

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

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.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Schmidt 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.

Where Schmidt is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#2≈420,000 est.≈1 in 189listedSchmidt329
US United States#154147,0341 in 2.3K147KSchmidt552
CH Switzerland#230,219as Schmid1 in 27830KSchmid158
BR Brazil—26,2281 in 8.1K26K—9
CA Canada#118≈19,000 est.≈1 in 2K—Schmidt232
DK Denmark—15,6911 in 37416K—6
AT Austria#4≈9,300 est.≈1 in 9512Schmid143

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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Schmidt is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Chile, Mexico

    Also written Schmïdt, Sçhmïdt, Schmídt, Sçhmidt

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Schmid-T

  • Hindi surname12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Switzerland

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Sinhala

    Also written Schmitt, শমিট, Schmîdt

  • Finnish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Estonia, Finland, Sweden

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Šchmidt

81 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Schmidt 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.

  • Schmidt = Smith in the US, the most common name in the western world, borne from Jews and non-Jews, in the Under Rhine district, 1809.

    as a nameThe Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

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)

18001850190019502000Max Stirner, b. 1806Käthe Kollwitz, b. 1867Helmut Schmidt, b. 1918Marlene Schmidt, b. 1937Christian Schmidt, b. 1957Oscar Schmidt, b. 1958Brian Schmidt, b. 1967Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, b. 1978Kevin Schmidt, b. 1988Kendall Schmidt, b. 1990

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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Schmidt,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 53 sources across 31 countries.

Official registers attesting Schmidt
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010147K#185
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000146K#171
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020142K#193
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—26K#666
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—16K#31
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20245.7K#89
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 10

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 Schmidt come from?
Schmidt = Smith in the US, the most common name in the western world, borne from Jews and non-Jews, in the Under Rhine district, 1809. Recorded by The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History.
How do you pronounce Schmidt?
A machine transcription gives /ˈʃmɪt/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Schmidt mean?
In English, A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation].
In which country does Schmidt have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 424 thousand people named Schmidt in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled schmidt.
How common is the name Schmidt?
In the United States, the national register counted 147,034 people named Schmidt in 2010, about 1 in 2.3 thousand residents.
How common is Schmidt compared with other names?
In Germany, Schmidt is the 2nd most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Schmidt?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/schmidt

The 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), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

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, “Schmidt” — the 2nd most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Schmidt parses inside a full name →