Bier
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 19 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/biɚ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bier is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 143K(measured from records)
- DEGermany≈1 in 19K
- FRFrance≈1 in 91K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 270 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 19K (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,100 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)from the word for beer; also occupational and nickname forms
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 26 languages in the etymology graph.
How Bier is read
(measured from records)Bier is one spelling over 4 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.
- English59%
A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German17%
from the word for beer; also occupational and nickname forms
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
beer-house names and compounds; also from Beere/Birne
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
tional name for a brewer of beer, mod. Ger. Bier, Yid. bir (MHG bier, OHG bior, from LL biber, a deriv. of bibere to drink). Vars.: Ger.: Biermann. Jewish: Bierman(n).
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
beer (alcoholic beverage fermented from starch material; a serving of this beverage)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Berufsname zu Bier; Bierwirt, Schankwirt oder Getränkehändler. Bearer count: 1725.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
- French8.0%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Bier in French.
- Portuguese5.5%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Bier in Portuguese.
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)Bier 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 | ≈4,100 est. | ≈1 in 19K | listed | — | 3 |
| US United States | 2,320 | 1 in 143K | 2.3K | Bier | 270 |
| BR Brazil | 1,689 | 1 in 125K | 1.7K | — | 2 |
| FR France | ≈750 est. | ≈1 in 91K | 107 | — | 4 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈350 est. | ≈1 in 187K | listed | Bier | 69 |
| NL Netherlands | 155 | 1 in 111K | 155 | Bier | 26 |
| PT Portugal | ≈76 est. | ≈1 in 135K | listed | — | — |
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; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); the hanks-dictionary-surnames-1988 register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); the dfa-band-5 register. 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)- August Bierb. 1861DEsurgeon (1861-1949)
- Justus Bierb. 1899DEGerman art historian (1899–1990)
- Howard Bierb. 1919USAmerican politician
- Wolfgang Bierb. 1943DEGerman sculptor and painter (1943-1998)
- Wolfgang Bierb. 1955DEspokesperson
- Susanne Bierb. 1960DKDanish film director (born 1960)
- Rolf Bierb. 1960DEGerman artist (born 1960)
- Gabriella Bierb. 1965SESwedish film director
- Christophe Bierb. 1966FRFrench pornographic actor and film critic
- Nicolas Bierfilm editor
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)30 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.3K | #13,177 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.3K | #12,605 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.2K | #13,372 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.7K | #5,705 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 155 | #13,136 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 137 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 129 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 120 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 108 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 107 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 103 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 103 | — |
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 Bier come from?
- from the word for beer; also occupational and nickname forms Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What are other forms of the name Bier?
- In the etymology graph, Beer is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Bier?
- A machine transcription gives /biɚ/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Bier mean?
- In English, A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person.
- In which country does Bier have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.1 thousand people named Bier in Germany, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Bier?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,320 people named Bier in 2010, about 1 in 143 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Bier?
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/bierThe 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, “Bier”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.