Köhler
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Köhler is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Germany it is the 46th most common surname. Recorded meaning: charcoal burner (person).
- CHSwitzerland1 in 1.2K(measured from records)
- DEGermany≈1 in 1.4K
- ATAustria≈1 in 7.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Köhler itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. 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
- 395 (measured from records)
- 1 in 1.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈75,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Kohler in US United States, CH Switzerland, AT Austria and 1 more.
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)
charcoal burner (person)
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Köhler 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 | — | ≈75,000 est. | ≈1 in 18K | — | Kohler | 6 |
| DE Germany | #46 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | — | Köhler | 195 |
| US United States | — | 19,368as Koehler | 1 in 17K | 19K | Kohler | 395 |
| CH Switzerland | #47 | 6,865 | 1 in 1.2K | 6.9K | Kohler | 93 |
| BR Brazil | — | 3,750 | 1 in 56K | 3.8K | — | 4 |
| AT Austria | #253 | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 7.2K | — | Kohler | 77 |
| SE Sweden | — | 1,092 | 1 in 9.3K | 1.1K | Köhler | 29 |
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); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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)
Köhler 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, Berufsname zu mhd. kôlere/koler ‘Köhler, Holzkohlenbrenner’; Karte zeigt o/ö-, a/u- und ch-/k-Varianten. Belegzahlen: Österreich Köhler:Kohler:Koller 717:604:4166; Schweiz 292:3479:3338.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Berufsname zu Köhler ‘Holzkohlenbrenner’; 38622 Token. Die Karte zeigt die Verteilung der Umlaut- und nicht umgelauteten Vokalvarianten.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Berufsname zu mittelhochdeutsch köhler, 'Köhler/Charcoal burner'; die Karte zeigt Monophthongvarianz o/ö. 35073 Träger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Berufsname zu mhd. koläre / mnd. koler ‘Köhler’; die Karte zeigt o/ö-Variation, mit Umlaut und umlautlosen Formen.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Berufsname zu Köhler 'Kohlenbrenner'; Platte zeigt Vokalvariation Kö-/Kö-/Kä-/Ko-/Fo- im Familiennamenbestand.
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)
- Johann Gottfried Köhlerb. 1745DEGerman astronomer (1745-1801)
- Wolfgang Köhlerb. 1887DEGerman-American psychologist and phenomenologist (1887-1967)
- Erich Köhlerb. 1892DEGerman politician, president of the Bundestag (1892-1958)
- Ilse Kochb. 1906DEnot in their usual nameGerman war criminal, wife of camp commandant Karl-Otto Koch (1906–1967)
- Horst Köhlerb. 1943DEGerman politician (CDU); president of Germany, 2004–2010
- Georges J. F. Köhlerb. 1946DEGerman immunologist (1946–1995)
- Guildo Hornb. 1963DEnot in their usual nameGerman Schlager singer
- Juliane Köhlerb. 1965DEGerman actress
- Ulrich Köhlerb. 1969DEGerman film director
- Kristina Schröderb. 1977DEnot in their usual nameGerman politician (CDU)
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 21 sources across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 1.1K | #936 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 786 | #1,559 |
Reference works 5
- 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
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
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 Köhler mean, and where does it come from?
- charcoal burner (person) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Köhler have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 75 thousand people named Köhler in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kohler.
- Where is Köhler most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Köhler is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 1.2 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Köhler?
- In Switzerland, the national register counted 6,865 people named Köhler in 2024, about 1 in 1.2 thousand residents.
- How common is Köhler compared with other names?
- In Germany, Köhler is the 46th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Köhler?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/k%C3%B6hlerThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Köhler” — the 46th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.