Dietrich
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from the given name Dietrich, Germanic *þeudō- 'people' + *rīk- 'power'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈditɹɪk/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Dietrich is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 76th most common surname.
- DEGermany≈1 in 1.9K(inferred from the name graph)
- CHSwitzerland1 in 3.2K
- ATAustria≈1 in 5.7K
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)
- Sources
- 396 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.9K (inferred from the name graph)
≈42,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the given name Dietrich, Germanic *þeudō- 'people' + *rīk- 'power'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Dietrich 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 | #76 | ≈42,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.9K | listed | Dietrich | 226 |
| US United States | — | 15,904 | 1 in 21K | 16K | Dietrich | 396 |
| BR Brazil | — | 3,691 | 1 in 57K | 3.7K | — | 3 |
| FR France | — | ≈3,300 est. | ≈1 in 21K | 388 | — | 5 |
| CH Switzerland | #279 | 2,640 | 1 in 3.2K | 2.6K | Dietrich | 81 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 16K | — | Dietrich | 141 |
| AT Austria | #337 | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 5.7K | 18 | Dietrich | 85 |
| IE Ireland | — | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 18K | — | Dietrich | 10 |
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); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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)
Dietrich 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 Germanic *þeud- 'people' + *rīk- 'powerful, ruler'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, from the Germanic stem diot- 'people' + rih 'ruler'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, German surname from the personal name Dietrich; plate shows vowel/shortening variation between Diet- and Ditt- forms. Sparse patronymic genitives occur; Died(e)richsen is concentrated in Schleswig-Holstein.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, German surname from the personal name Dietrich; page shows the vowel-epenthesis/fugenvokal pattern in Dietrich vs. older/variant spellings.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Linking-vowel variation in surnames from personal names Dietrich/Friedrich/Emrich/Ludwig/Mangold.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
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)
- Amalie Dietrichb. 1821DEGerman naturalist, explorer and collector (1821-1891)
- Albert Dietrichb. 1829DEGerman composer and conductor (1829–1908)
- Charles Henry Dietrichb. 1853USAmerican politician (1853-1924)
- Hermann Dietrichb. 1879DEGerman politician, Weimar Republic minister (1879-1954)
- Sepp Dietrichb. 1892DEGerman Military Officer and Waffen-SS general and a convicted Nazi Military war criminal (1892-1966)
- Otto Dietrichb. 1897DEGerman general (1897-1952)
- Marlene Dietrichb. 1901USGerman and American actress and singer (1901–1992)
- Dena Dietrichb. 1928USAmerican actress (1928-2020)
- Wilfried Dietrichb. 1933DEWest German wrestler (1933-1992)
- Peter Dietrichb. 1944DEGerman footballer
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 65 sources across 29 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 16K | #2,291 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 16K | #2,112 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 15K | #2,302 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 3.7K | #2,880 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 2.6K | #324 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 388 | — |
Reference works 10
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- 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
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- 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
- What does the name Dietrich mean, and where does it come from?
- from the given name Dietrich, Germanic *þeudō- 'people' + *rīk- 'power' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What are other forms of the name Dietrich?
- In the etymology graph, Wolf, Tudor and Diederich are forms of the same name in other languages; Till and Tillo are recorded short or pet forms.
- How do you pronounce Dietrich?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈditɹɪk/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Dietrich have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 42 thousand people named Dietrich in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled dietrich.
- How common is the name Dietrich?
- In the United States, the national register counted 15,904 people named Dietrich in 2010, about 1 in 21 thousand residents.
- How common is Dietrich compared with other names?
- In Germany, Dietrich is the 76th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Dietrich?
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/dietrichThe 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, “Dietrich” — the 76th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.