Schmal
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from the adjective 'small, slim, meager'
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈʃmæɫ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Schmal is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 52K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 790K
- ATAustria≈1 in 92K
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
- 128 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 52K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,500 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
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)
from the adjective 'small, slim, meager'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Schmal 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 52K | listed | Schmal | 81 |
| US United States | 421 | 1 in 790K | 421 | Schmal | 128 |
| AO Angola | ≈270 est. | ≈1 in 120K | — | Schmal | 1 |
| NL Netherlands | 153 | 1 in 113K | 153 | Schmal | 17 |
| AR Argentina | 122 | 1 in 373K | 122 | — | — |
| AT Austria | ≈96 est. | ≈1 in 92K | — | Schmal | 22 |
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; the deutsche-namenkunde-gottschald-1982 register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national). 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)
Schmal is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Plate shows o/ö vowel variation in this surname type. Bearer count: 279.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, narrow, slender
as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German
In German, narrow, slender (not wide, comparatively long), small
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, "klein, schlank, kärglich", Komp. Schmä- ler. Schmäling (er), Schme- ling (x Schmel; rotw. "Zigeuner"); Smal(ian) < Jahn; Schmal |fuß, bein, acker, Schläger; nach ÖN. (en)bach > bauch?, hofer, holz, wieser, wasser; kuche, rieme, brock, bruch, Schmahl | feldt,horst,stieg, stich (oder doch = Stich •wie Faulstich?)
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
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)
- Julie Walterb. 1869CZnot in their usual nameholocaust victim, b. 1869-04-17
- Adolf Schmalb. 1872ATAustrian fencer and cyclist (1872–1919)
- Betty Schmalb. 1874CZHolocaust victim (born 1874)
- Felix Schmalb. 1876DEjournalist and sports journalist (1876-1927)
- Adolf Schmalb. 1885ATsport shooter
- Oskar Schmalb. 1904ATAustrian painter (1904-1976)
- Kurt G. Schmalb. 1926CZHolocaust victim (born 1926)
- Karl-Heinz Schmalb. 1929DEGerman association football player
- Jesús González Schmalb. 1942MXMexican lawyer and politician
- Roy Schmalb. 1981LULuxembourgian ice hockey player
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 22 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 421 | #49,824 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 392 | #56,329 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 385 | #50,903 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 153 | #13,346 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 122 | — |
| DE Germany | Deutsche Namenkunde (Gottschald, 1982) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- What does the name Schmal mean, and where does it come from?
- from the adjective 'small, slim, meager' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What are other forms of the name Schmal?
- In the etymology graph, Small and Smal are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Schmal?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈʃmæɫ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Schmal have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.5 thousand people named Schmal in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled schmal.
- How common is the name Schmal?
- In the United States, the national register counted 421 people named Schmal in 2010, about 1 in 790 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Schmal?
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/schmalThe 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, “Schmal”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.