Himmel
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from Middle High German himel 'heaven, sky'; often from house signs and place names
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈhɪməɫ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Himmel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- CZCzechia1 in 126K(measured from records)
- CHSwitzerland1 in 156K
- PLPoland1 in 189K
carrying the name, as counted by each country's national register. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 5 (measured from records)
- 1 in 126K (inferred from the name graph)
944 people, 2010
recorded for this name
Reference-verified
Czechia
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 Middle High German himel 'heaven, sky'; often from house signs and place names
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Himmel 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 | 944 | 1 in 352K | 1.1K | Himmel | 5 |
| PL Poland | 203 | 1 in 189K | 108 | — | — |
| CZ Czechia | 85 | 1 in 126K | 85 | — | — |
| CH Switzerland | 54 | 1 in 156K | 54 | — | — |
| FI Finland | 21 | 1 in 265K | 21 | — | — |
944 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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames); MVČR — living population register 2017; 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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Himmel 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, topographic name from Middle High German himel ‘heaven’, ‘paradise’ (Old High German himil ‘heaven’, ‘sky’), with reference to high altitude, pleasant situation, or the fruitfulness of the soil.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, ornamental name from German Himmel ‘heaven’, selected because of the pleasant associations of the word.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, sky, heaven
as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German
In Norwegian Nynorsk, sky (atmosphere above a point)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In pdc, heaven
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- Johann Himmelb. 1581DEGerman author and theologian
- Friedrich Heinrich Himmelb. 1765DEGerman composer
- Joseph J. Himmelb. 1855USAmerican Jesuit priest and missionary (1855-1924)
- Paul Himmelb. 1914USAmerican photographer (1914–2009)
- Hellmuth Himmelb. 1919ATAustrian university teacher (1919-1983)
- Richard Himmelb. 1920USAmerican novelist and interior designer
- Adolf Himmelb. 1928DEGerman author and translator (1928–2013)
- Hansjoerg Himmelb. 1960chess player
- Gerhard Himmelb. 1965DEOlympic medalist in wrestling
- Arica Himmelb. 2005USAmerican actress
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 21 sources across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.1K | #21,754 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.1K | #24,024 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 944 | #25,989 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 108 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 108 | #28,108 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 95 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 95 | #30,791 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 85 | #19,327 |
| CZ Czechia | KdeJsme.cz — četnost jmen a příjmení (MVČR population register front-end) | — | 85 | #8,320 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 54 | #17,560 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 21 | #41,941 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- What does the name Himmel mean, and where does it come from?
- from Middle High German himel 'heaven, sky'; often from house signs and place names Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How do you pronounce Himmel?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈhɪməɫ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Himmel have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 944 people named Himmel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled himmel.
- Where is Himmel most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Himmel is densest in Czechia — about 1 in 126 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Himmel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 944 people named Himmel in 2010, about 1 in 352 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Himmel?
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/himmelThe 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, “Himmel”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.