Sperl

surname · Latin script

Meaning: Occupational/indirect occupational surname from mhd

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

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

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

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 31K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 443K
  • ATAustria≈1 in 11K

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)

≈2,600 people, est.

Sources
166 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 11K (inferred from the name graph)

Austria, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Occupational/indirect occupational surname from mhd. spor(e) ‘Sporn’; bearers: Sperl 1032, Sperrle 139+75, Sperlein 52, Spörl(e) 910+67, Spörlein 174.

Sources 1

  • Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen

Where in the world(measured from records)

Sperl 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 Sperl is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany—≈2,600 est.≈1 in 31K—Sperl110
AT Austria#868≈800 est.≈1 in 11K—Sperl54
US United States—7511 in 443K772Sperl166
CZ Czechia—4461 in 24K446—1
IT Italy—≈98 est.≈1 in 637K—Sperl4
IE Ireland—≈42 est.≈1 in 122K—Sperl1
SG Singapore—≈33 est.≈1 in 190K—Sperl1

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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; MVČR — living population register 2017. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Sperl is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Czech surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia, United States

    Also written Šperl

  • Spanish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Šperl

  • French surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States

    Also written Šperl

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Šperl

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Šperl

30 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Sperl is also recorded in 2 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 tailor; from awl/needle nicknames

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, Wohl Berufsname: Anschluss an Spörl; ggf. zu bair. sperl 'Stecknadel' oder mhd. spar 'Sperling'; Bearer count 1032.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen

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)

18001850190019502000Johann Sperl, b. 1840Hans Sperl, b. 1861August Sperl, b. 1862Friedrich Sperl, b. 1897Edna May Sperl, b. 1899Alexandra Hohl, b. 1914Sonja Sperl, b. 1936Robert Zeppel-Sperl, b. 1944Rainer Sperl, b. 1949Wolfgang Sperl, b. 1956

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)

FormalDear Sperl,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 20 sources across 11 countries.

Official registers attesting Sperl
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000772#28,974
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020770#32,101
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010751#30,946
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—17#58,482
CZ CzechiaKdeJsme.cz — četnost jmen a příjmení (MVČR population register front-end)—16#16,351
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

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 Sperl come from?
Occupational/indirect occupational surname from mhd. spor(e) ‘Sporn’; bearers: Sperl 1032, Sperrle 139+75, Sperlein 52, Spörl(e) 910+67, Spörlein 174. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen.
How do you pronounce Sperl?
A machine transcription gives /ˈspɝɫ/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Sperl mean?
Recorded meaning: Occupational/indirect occupational surname from mhd.
In which country does Sperl have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 2.6 thousand people named Sperl in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sperl.
How common is the name Sperl?
In the United States, the national register counted 751 people named Sperl in 2010, about 1 in 443 thousand residents.
How common is Sperl compared with other names?
In Austria, Sperl is the 868th most common surname of 127,275 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Sperl?

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

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, “Sperl” — the 868th most common surname in Austria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Sperl parses inside a full name →