Suter
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: An occupational surname
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈsutɝ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Suter is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Switzerland it is the 27th most common surname.
- CHSwitzerland1 in 788(measured from records)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 41K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 44K
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)
- Sources
- 334 (measured from records)
- 1 in 788 (inferred from the name graph)
≈40,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
An occupational surname.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
How Suter is read(measured from records)
Suter is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English68%
An occupational surname.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German7.8%
Berufsname 'Schuhmacher'; Beispiel für standardferne, früh abgegangene appellativische Basis.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Berufsname: der Schuster/Schuhmacher; aus lat. sutor 'Schuhmacher'.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Suter 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 35K | — | Suter | 8 |
| CH Switzerland | #27 | 10,660 | 1 in 788 | 11K | Suter | 111 |
| US United States | — | 5,648 | 1 in 59K | 5.6K | Suter | 334 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈3,400 est. | ≈1 in 16K | 1 | Suter | 7 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 44K | 1.7K | Suter | 124 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈630 est. | ≈1 in 41K | — | Suter | 89 |
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; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Mzalendo Trust "Elections Watch" — 2022 gazetted election winners. 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)
Suter 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 enm, alternative form of soutere
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Breton, siffleur
as a wordDeshayes, Dictionnaire étymologique du breton (2003)
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)
- Heinrich Suterb. 1848CHhistorian of science (1848-1922)
- Fergus Suterb. 1857GBScottish footballer (1857-1916)
- Hermann Suterb. 1870CHSwiss composer and conductor (1870-1926)
- Heiri Suterb. 1899CHSwiss racing cyclist (1899–1978)
- Martin Suterb. 1948CHSwiss writer, playwright, screenwriter and publicist
- Eskil Suterb. 1967CHSuiss motorcycle racer
- Karin Suter-Erathb. 1970CHSwiss para badminton player and former wheelchair tennis player
- Ryan Suterb. 1985USAmerican ice hockey player
- Leo Suterb. 1993GBEnglish actor
- Corinne Suterb. 1994CHSwiss alpine skier
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 35 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 11K | #27 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 5.6K | #6,072 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 5.5K | #5,802 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 5.3K | #6,217 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 1.7K | #4,314 |
| KE Kenya | Mzalendo Trust "Elections Watch" — 2022 gazetted election winners | 2022 | 1 | #1,360 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- 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
- What does the name Suter mean, and where does it come from?
- An occupational surname. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Suter have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 40 thousand people named Suter in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled suter.
- Where is Suter most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Suter is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 788 people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
- How do you pronounce Suter?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈsutɝ/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Suter?
- In Switzerland, the national register counted 10,660 people named Suter in 2024, about 1 in 788 residents.
- How common is Suter compared with other names?
- In Switzerland, Suter is the 27th most common surname of 127,759 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Suter?
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/suterThe 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, “Suter” — the 27th most common surname in Switzerland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.