Saunier

surname · Latin script

Meaning: salter; one who extracts salt

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

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

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

rarermore common
  • FRFrance≈1 in 8.9K(inferred from the name graph)
  • CNChina≈1 in 14K
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 61K

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)

≈100,000 people, est.

Sources
269 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 8.9K (inferred from the name graph)

France, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

salter; one who extracts salt

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Where in the world(measured from records)

Saunier 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 Saunier is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈100,000 est.≈1 in 14K—Saunier5
FR France#557≈7,600 est.≈1 in 8.9K1KSaunier269
US United States—7751 in 429K795Saunier102
BR Brazil—2241 in 945K224——
CH Switzerland—1381 in 61K138Saunier25
GA Gabon—≈21 est.≈1 in 108K1—2
UY Uruguay—181 in 188K18——

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: INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); Ministere de l'Interieur — 2025 candidate lists (local + legislative). 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).

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

19201940196019802000Jean Saunier, b. 1939Claude Saunier, b. 1943Nicole Saunier, b. 1947Bruno Saunier, b. 1963Nelly Saunier, b. 1964Franck Saunier, b. 1966Johanne Saunier Clayburgh, b. 1967Greg Saunier, b. 1969Clément Saunier, b. 1979Matthieu Saunier, b. 1990

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)

FormalMadame, Monsieur,Dear Saunier, (English)
InformalMadame, Monsieur,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 23 sources across 14 countries.

Official registers attesting Saunier
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19511.3K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19611.3K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19411.2K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19711.1K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19811K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19911K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1921997—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1901937—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1931920—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020795#31,239
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010775#30,222
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1911764—

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)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

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 Saunier mean, and where does it come from?
salter; one who extracts salt Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
How do you pronounce Saunier?
A machine transcription gives /sɔɲe/ (IPA) for French.
In which country does Saunier have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 102 thousand people named Saunier in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled saunier.
How common is the name Saunier?
In the United States, the national register counted 775 people named Saunier in 2010, about 1 in 429 thousand residents.
How common is Saunier compared with other names?
In France, Saunier is the 557th most common surname of 1,200,812 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Saunier?

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

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, “Saunier” — the 557th most common surname in France. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Saunier parses inside a full name →