Blank
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: apparently a variant of Blankley , via a form Blanksley with intrusive -s-
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 19 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
Blank is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 4.9K(inferred from the name graph)
- CHSwitzerland1 in 9K
- SESweden1 in 14K
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)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 411 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.9K (inferred from the name graph)
≈16,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)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)from ahd. blanc 'white, shining'; also 'open, treeless'
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
How Blank is read
(measured from records)Blank 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.
- English68%
apparently a variant of Blankley , via a form Blanksley with intrusive -s-.
as a nameThe Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
White or pale; without colour.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German15%
from ahd. blanc 'white, shining'; also 'open, treeless'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Atlas plate on B/P variation in names with Blank/Bayer/Bauer etc.; includes Blank/Plank.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus
personal characteristic: pale, fair-haired
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
bright
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)Blank 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 | #342 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.9K | — | Blank | 173 |
| US United States | — | 13,050 | 1 in 25K | 13K | Blank | 411 |
| BR Brazil | — | 3,366 | 1 in 63K | 3.4K | — | 2 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈2,700 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | Blank | 108 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 68K | — | Blank | 16 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 931 | 1 in 9K | 931 | Blank | 45 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 757 | 1 in 23K | 757 | Blank | 44 |
| SE Sweden | — | 733 | 1 in 14K | 733 | Blank | 35 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈440 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Blank | 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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); 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).
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Maria Ulyanovab. 1835RUnot in their usual namemother of Vladimir Lenin (1835-1916)
- Theodor Blankb. 1905DEGerman politician (1905-1972)
- Mel Blancb. 1908USnot in their usual nameAmerican voice actor (1908–1989)
- Les Blankb. 1935USAmerican documentary filmmaker
- Joani Blankb. 1937UShuman sexuality author
- Arthur Blankb. 1942USAmerican businessman and sports team owner
- Steve Blankb. 1953USAmerican businessman
- Rebecca Blankb. 1955USAmerican economist (1955–2023)
- Kenny Blankb. 1977USAmerican actor
- Kelly Kellyb. 1987USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional wrestler, model, dancer and television personality
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)34 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 13K | #2,681 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 13K | #2,765 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 13K | #2,613 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 3.4K | #3,106 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 931 | #1,279 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 757 | #2,377 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 733 | #1,341 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- 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
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
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 Blank come from?
- from ahd. blanc 'white, shining'; also 'open, treeless' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What does the name Blank mean?
- In English, apparently a variant of Blankley , via a form Blanksley with intrusive -s-.
- What are other forms of the name Blank?
- In the etymology graph, Blanco and Blanc are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Blank have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 16 thousand people named Blank in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled blank.
- How common is the name Blank?
- In the United States, the national register counted 13,050 people named Blank in 2010, about 1 in 25 thousand residents.
- How common is Blank compared with other names?
- In Germany, Blank is the 342nd most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Blank?
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/blankThe 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, “Blank” — the 342nd most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.