Pfeil
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Pfeil is a surname written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in the United States. Recorded meaning: 2574 Bearer; probably to mnd.
- DEGermany
- USUnited States
- GBUnited Kingdom
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
2574 Bearer; probably to mnd. pîl ‘Pfeil’, though often also a habitational surname to the place name Pfeil (East Prussia). Shows vowel type ei in the surname cluster.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Recorded in:
No national register we accept counts this name’s bearers, so the page lists where it is found and publishes no figure.
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)
Pfeil 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 weapon maker; from arrow
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, arrowsmith, or perhaps a nickname for a tall thin man, from Ger. Pfeil arrow (MHG, OHG pfil, from L ptlum spike, javelin; cf. Pile i). Vars.: Pfeiler; Pfeilschmidt (see Smith). Cogns.: Low Ger.: Piel(mann), Pyl. Flem., Du.: Van den Pijl(l), Pijlman. Dan., Norw., Swed. : Pi(e)hl. Dims.: Low Ger. : Pielk(e).
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In German, arrow
as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German
In German, arrow (missile)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Zu mhd. phîl, mnd. pîl ‘Pfeil’; Vergleichsreihe zur i/ei-Varianz. Bearer count not printed.
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)
- Wilhelm Pfeilb. 1783DEGerman forestry scientist
- Heinrich Pfeilb. 1835DEGerman composer, bookseller and writer (1835-1899)
- Joachim von Pfeilb. 1857PLGerman explorer (1857–1924)
- Werner Pfeilb. 1937DEGerman athletics competitor
- Bobby Pfeilb. 1943USAmerican baseball player
- Dirk Pfeilb. 1948DEGerman politician
- Werner Pfeilb. 1966DEGerman politician
- Ulrich Pfeilb. 1966DEGerman professor
- Juliane Pfeilb. 1987DEGerman politician
- Valentin Pfeilb. 1988ATAustrian athlete
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 28 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.5K | #12,285 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.5K | #11,523 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.4K | #12,301 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 125 | #53,430 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 92 | #20,363 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 67 | #15,019 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 39 | #59,263 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 34 | #31,676 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) | — | 26 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 22 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 21 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 21 | #87,670 |
Reference works 4
- 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
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 Pfeil come from?
- 2574 Bearer; probably to mnd. pîl ‘Pfeil’, though often also a habitational surname to the place name Pfeil (East Prussia). Shows vowel type ei in the surname cluster. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus.
- What does the name Pfeil mean?
- Recorded meaning: 2574 Bearer; probably to mnd.
- What are other forms of the name Pfeil?
- In the etymology graph, Pile and Pijl are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Pfeil have the most bearers?
- Pfeil is most frequently recorded in the United States.
What do you want to know about Pfeil?
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/pfeilThe same 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), 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, “Pfeil”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.