Greiner
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from Grein, or a nickname for a quarrelsome person
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈɡɹaɪnɝ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Greiner is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 6.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- ATAustria≈1 in 6.5K
- USUnited States1 in 37K
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 364 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈13,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
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 Grein, or a nickname for a quarrelsome person
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Greiner 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 104K | — | Greiner | 8 |
| DE Germany | #466 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.2K | — | Greiner | 178 |
| US United States | — | 8,935 | 1 in 37K | 8.9K | Greiner | 364 |
| AT Austria | #463 | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 6.5K | — | Greiner | 79 |
| FR France | — | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 51K | 166 | — | 3 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 437 | 1 in 19K | 437 | Greiner | 35 |
| NO Norway | — | 308 | 1 in 18K | 308 | Greiner | 26 |
| HU Hungary | — | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 34K | — | Greiner | 21 |
| BB Barbados | #257 | — | — | — | Greiner | 2 |
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); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); 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)
Greiner 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.
1. nickname for a cantankerous or quarrelsome person, from Middle High German grlner ‘squabbler’, ‘quarreler’, an agent derivative of grin ‘loud cry’, ‘shout’. 2. habitational name for someone from a place called Grein (see Grein 2).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, 5430 Belege; Übername zu mhd. grīnen 'das Maul verziehen, später 'zanken''. In Doppelnamen als häufiges Erstglied mit Nestern in Thüringen.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In German, Doppelnamen mit Bindestrich; morphologische Differenzierung mit angeschlossenem Zweitglied/-X. Karte zeigt 74 Types/329 Tokens in Thüringen/Nordbayern.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In German, Zweitglied in Doppelnamen; 54 Tokens in 46 Types, am häufigsten Müller-Greiner (5). Typ: Komposition mit Bindestrich/Zusammenschreibung/Spatium.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In German, Familienname; im Bindestrich-Doppelname besonders häufig als Erstbestandteil.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
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)
- Otto Greinerb. 1869DEGerman artist (1869-1916)
- Blanka Péchyb. 1894HUnot in their usual nameHungarian writer, actress (1894–1988)
- Heinz Greinerb. 1895DEGerman General and Knight's Cross recipient (1895-1977)
- Walter Greinerb. 1935DEGerman physicist (1935-2016)
- Thomas Greinerb. 1963DEEast German rower
- Nicole Fosseb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and dancer
- Stefan-Peter Greinerb. 1966DEGerman violin maker
- Helen Greinerb. 1967USAmerican computer scientist, engineer and entrepreneur
- Grayson Greinerb. 1992USAmerican professional baseball catcher
- Loib. 2002DEnot in their usual nameGerman singer
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 33 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 8.9K | #3,978 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 8.2K | #3,954 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 8.1K | #4,251 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 437 | #2,981 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 308 | #4,964 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 242 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 237 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 213 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 204 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 192 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 181 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 173 | — |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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
- 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 Greiner mean, and where does it come from?
- from Grein, or a nickname for a quarrelsome person Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How do you pronounce Greiner?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɡɹaɪnɝ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Greiner have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 13 thousand people named Greiner in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled greiner.
- How common is the name Greiner?
- In the United States, the national register counted 8,935 people named Greiner in 2010, about 1 in 37 thousand residents.
- How common is Greiner compared with other names?
- In Barbados, Greiner is the 257th most common surname of 11,500 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Greiner?
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/greinerThe 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, “Greiner” — the 257th most common surname in Barbados. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.