Hunger

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.

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Hunger 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.

• English43%

  from OE *Hungār, unrecorded; first attested Hungar Cofrich 1166 P (Nf)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• German43%

  Toponymic surname from Ungarn/Hungarn 'Hungary'; variant of Unger, though also sometimes explained otherwise. Bearer count: 2716 tokens (Hunger 2700, Hungar 16).

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

  from an abstract nickname meaning 'hunger'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  Toponymic surname from a place or dwelling/landscape name; compared in the distribution table against Typ Unger. Bearer count not printed.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

  Toponymic surname: from a place/region or dwelling/landscape feature name; bearer count 2716.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Hunger is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English surname2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

  Also written Hūñģēr

• Portuguese surname2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Switzerland

  Also written Hünger

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Hünger

• Norwegian surname5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Denmark

  Languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

  Also written Hûnger

33 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Hunger is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• from Middle High German hunger ‘hunger’; a nickname for a thin or undernourished person, or sometimes a topographic name from a piece of land named with this word with reference to the infertility of the soil.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

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.

• Olaf I of Denmarkb. 1050DKnot in their usual nameKing of Denmark
• Herbert Hungerb. 1914ATAustrian Byzantinist (1914–2000)
• Robert Hunger-Bühlerb. 1953CHSwiss actor, director and author

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).

21 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 13 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Where does the name Hunger come from?

Toponymic surname from Ungarn/Hungarn 'Hungary'; variant of Unger, though also sometimes explained otherwise. Bearer count: 2716 tokens (Hunger 2700, Hungar 16). Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte.

How do you pronounce Hunger?

In German /ˈhʊŋɐ/ (Wiktionary).

What does the name Hunger mean?

In English, from OE *Hungār, unrecorded; first attested Hungar Cofrich 1166 P (Nf)

Which countries have the most people with the surname Hunger?

Mondonomo estimates about 6.9 thousand people named Hunger in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled hunger. After it come United States, Switzerland, Brazil and Austria; the country table on this page ranks them.

How common is the name Hunger?

In the United States, the national register counted 1,168 people named Hunger in 2010, about 1 in 285 thousand residents.