Laufer
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Laufer runner, an agent deriv
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/lawfɚ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Laufer is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 21K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 123K
- ILIsrael≈1 in 20K
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.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 292 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 20K (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,800 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Israel, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Läufer in DE Germany, AT Austria.
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)
Laufer runner, an agent deriv. of laufen to run (MHG loufen, OHG (h)louf(f)an). Cogns.: Jewish (Ashkenazic): Laufer (nickname meaning ‘run¬ ner’, or adoption of the Ger. surname). Low Ger.: Loper.
Sources 1
- A dictionary of surnames
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Laufer 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.
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; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public). 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)
Laufer 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, occupational name for a messenger or a nickname for a fast runner, from an agent derivative of Middle High German loufen, German laufen ‘to run’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, habitational name for someone from a place called Lauf.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, Berufsname zu mhd. loufer/löufer 'Läufer, laufender Bote'; 1619+241 Belege. Auch als Herkunfts-/Wohnstättenname möglich.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, Ldufer runner, an agent deriv. of laufen to run (MHG loufen, OHG (h)louf(f)an).
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In German, variant of Laver.
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)
- Berthold Lauferb. 1874DEGerman academic (1874-1934)
- Walter Lauferb. 1906USAmerican swimmer (1906–1984)
- Gerda Lauferb. 1910DEGerman politician (1910-1999)
- Heinrich Lauferb. 1924ATAustrian writer
- Hildrun Lauferb. 1939DEEast German long jumper
- Josef Lauferb. 1939CZCzech actor and singer (1939–2024)
- Henry Lauferb. 1945USAmerican businessman and mathematician
- Peter Lauferb. 1950USAmerican journalist, professor of journalism, and media scholar
- Erez Lauferb. 1962ILIsraeli film director
- Shlohmob. 2000USnot in their usual nameAmerican electronic musician
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 31 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.7K | #11,620 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.6K | #11,449 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.6K | #11,126 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 959 | #9,657 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 296 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 296 | #11,250 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 274 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 274 | #11,925 |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 52 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- 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
- Where does the name Laufer come from?
- Laufer runner, an agent deriv. of laufen to run (MHG loufen, OHG (h)louf(f)an). Cogns.: Jewish (Ashkenazic): Laufer (nickname meaning ‘run¬ ner’, or adoption of the Ger. surname). Low Ger.: Loper. Recorded by A dictionary of surnames.
- How do you pronounce Laufer?
- A machine transcription gives /lawfɚ/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Laufer mean?
- Recorded meaning: Laufer runner, an agent deriv.
- In which country does Laufer have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.8 thousand people named Laufer in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled läufer.
- How common is the name Laufer?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,700 people named Laufer in 2010, about 1 in 123 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Laufer?
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/lauferThe 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, “Laufer”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.