Teller

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Teller 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.

• English75%

  (i) ‘weaver’; (ii) ‘person who lives by an area of undergrowth’; (iii) ‘person who lives by a gorge or low-lying area’; (iv) ‘maker of dishes’.

  as a name·Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  from Anglo-French telier, ‘a maker or seller of linen cloth, a weaver’; first attested Normannus telarius 1193

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

  for a strong man or ferocious warrior, from OF taille(r) to cut (see Taillant) + fer iron (L ferrum). Vars.: Taiiiefer, Telfair, Tuliiver, Toiver; Telford.

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

  A person who tells stories.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• German6.0%

  plate

  as a word·A Frequency Dictionary of German

  plate, dish

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Teller, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Penn
• Miles
• Jackson
• Brooks
• Davis
• Sullivan
• William
• Maxwell
• Harrison
• Jack
• Oliver
• John

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Teller is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Hebrew surname7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Israel, United States, Romania, Lebanon

  Languages: Hebrew, Arabic

  Also written טלר, טאלר, Thaler, Teler, Ṭeler

55 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.

• Marcus Tellerb. 1682NL18th-century composer of religious music from the Southern Netherlands
• Wilhelm Abraham Tellerb. 1734DEGerman theologian (1734-1804)
• Henry Moore Tellerb. 1830USAmerican politician (1830-1914)
• Edward Tellerb. 1908HUHungarian-American Jewish nuclear physicist (1908–2003)
• Günther Tellerb. 1925DEGerman politician (1925-1982)
• Tellerb. 1948USAmerican magician
• Juergen Tellerb. 1964DEGerman photographer (born 1964)
• Janne Tellerb. 1964DKDanish author
• Miles Tellerb. 1987USAmerican actor
• Wyatt Tellerb. 1994USAmerican professional football 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).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Teller mean, and where does it come from?

(i) ‘weaver’; (ii) ‘person who lives by an area of undergrowth’; (iii) ‘person who lives by a gorge or low-lying area’; (iv) ‘maker of dishes’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

How do you pronounce Teller?

A machine transcription gives /tʰɛlɚ/ (IPA) for English.

In which country does Teller have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 3.8 thousand people named Teller, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled teller.

How common is the name Teller?

In the United States, the national register counted 3,814 people named Teller in 2010, about 1 in 87 thousand residents.