Kocher

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in German: Toponymic surname from the river Kocher (older Kochen); residence/origin name to the river. Bearer count: 900

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ˈkɔtʃɝ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Kocher is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 38K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 53K
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 4.4K

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)

≈37,000 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
312 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 4.4K (inferred from the name graph)

Switzerland

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

KocherLatin(measured from records)
โคเชอรThai(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)

Toponymic surname from the river Kocher (older Kochen); residence/origin name to the river. Bearer count: 900.

Sources 1

  • Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

How Kocher is read(measured from records)

Kocher is one spelling over 3 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.

  • English71%

    Emil T., Swiss surgeon (Nobel 1909}

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • German8.6%

    Toponymic surname from the river Kocher (older Kochen); residence/origin name to the river. Bearer count: 900.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

    Toponymic surname, derived from the place/river name Kocher.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

    agent noun of kochen; cooker (appliance or utensil for cooking food)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • French6.4%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Kocher in French.

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)

Kocher 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.

Where Kocher is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈37,000 est.≈1 in 38K—Kocher3
US United States—6,3081 in 53K6.3KKocher312
DE Germany—≈2,100 est.≈1 in 38K—Kocher106
CH Switzerland#3861,9271 in 4.4K1.9KKocher62
IQ Iraq—≈1,200 est.≈1 in 31K—Kocher8
AT Austria—≈610 est.≈1 in 14K—Kocher52

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). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Kocher is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Köcher

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Köcher

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Köcher

  • Polish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, Switzerland

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

    Also written Köcher, Kôcher

  • Russian surname9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, United States, Türkiye

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

    Also written Кочер, Кохер, Кочерь

43 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.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Kocher is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • from Middle High German kochaere ‘vessel’, ‘container (for transporting fish)’, ‘quiver’, hence a metonymic occupational name maker of these.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • occupational name for a cook, from an agent derivative of German kochen ‘to cook’. Compare Koch.

    as a nameDictionary 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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Emil Kocher, b. 1841Brad Kocher, b. 1888Karl Koecher, b. 1934Peter Kocher, b. 1939Isabelle Kocher, b. 1966Noémie Kocher, b. 1969Paul Kocher, b. 1973Zina Kocher, b. 1982Martina Kocher, b. 1985Fabienne Kocher, b. 1993

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)

FormalDear Kocher,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 26 sources across 15 countries.

Official registers attesting Kocher
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020106.3K#5,514
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020005.9K#5,429
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020205.6K#5,914
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20241.9K#507
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 5

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 Kocher mean, and where does it come from?
Toponymic surname from the river Kocher (older Kochen); residence/origin name to the river. Bearer count: 900. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte.
How do you pronounce Kocher?
A machine transcription gives /ˈkɔtʃɝ/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Kocher have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 37 thousand people named Kocher in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kocher.
Where is Kocher most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Kocher is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 4.4 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Kocher?
In the United States, the national register counted 6,308 people named Kocher in 2010, about 1 in 53 thousand residents.
How common is Kocher compared with other names?
In Switzerland, Kocher is the 386th most common surname of 127,759 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Kocher?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kocher

The 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, “Kocher” — the 386th most common surname in Switzerland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Kocher parses inside a full name →