Bretz
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Indirect occupational name from mhd
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈbɹɛts/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bretz is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- FRFrance≈1 in 112Kas Brech(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 90K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 247K
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 Bretz 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)
- Sources
- 134 (measured from records)
- 1 in 90K (inferred from the name graph)
3,693 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
United States
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Brech in FR France, DE Germany.
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)
Indirect occupational name from mhd. prēze/prēzel/brēzel 'pretzel'; bearers 4+930.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bretz 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 | 3,693 | 1 in 90K | 3.7K | Bretz | 126 |
| DE Germany | ≈790 est. | ≈1 in 101K | — | Brech | 73 |
| FR France | ≈600 est. | ≈1 in 112K | 12 | Brech | 134 |
| BR Brazil | 328 | 1 in 645K | 328 | — | 1 |
| AR Argentina | 80 | 1 in 568K | 80 | — | — |
| CH Switzerland | 34 | 1 in 247K | 34 | Bretz | 5 |
| FI Finland | 11as Brech | 1 in 507K | 11 | — | 1 |
3,693 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: INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- John L. Bretzb. 1852USAmerican politician (1852-1920)
- Julius Bretzb. 1870DEGerman painter (1870-1953)
- George Bretzb. 1880CACanadian lacrosse player (1880–1956)
- J Harlen Bretzb. 1882USAmerican geologist who discovered the Missoula Floods (1882-1981)
- Rudy Bretzb. 1914UStelevision and communications consultant
- Stacey Lowery Bretzb. 1967USchemistry researcher
- Frank Bretzb. 1971DEresearcher
- Gábor Bretzb. 1974HU(1974–) opera singer
- Steeven Bretzb. 1976DEGerman politician
- Greg Bretzb. 1990USAmerican snowboarder
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 19 sources across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.7K | #8,867 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 3.4K | #8,858 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 3.2K | #9,635 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 328 | #24,538 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 80 | — |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 34 | #24,910 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 32 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 22 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 21 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 20 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 17 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 14 | — |
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 Bretz come from?
- Indirect occupational name from mhd. prēze/prēzel/brēzel 'pretzel'; bearers 4+930. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen.
- How do you pronounce Bretz?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈbɹɛts/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Bretz mean?
- Recorded meaning: Indirect occupational name from mhd.
- In which country does Bretz have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 3.7 thousand people named Bretz, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bretz.
- Where is Bretz most common?
- Bretz is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 90 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Bretz?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,693 people named Bretz in 2010, about 1 in 90 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Bretz?
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/bretzThe 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, “Bretz”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.