Von
surname · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/vɑn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Von is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Africa than in any other country. In Switzerland it is the 52nd most common surname. Recorded meaning: Borrowed from German von.
- CHSwitzerland≈1 in 3K(inferred from the name graph)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 4.7K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 8.5K
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.
- South Africa (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 424 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈12,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Switzerland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Borrowed from German von.
Sources 3
- A Frequency Dictionary of German
- Wiktionary
- Nordic Names
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Von 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZA South Africa | #710 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.7K | — | Von | 97 |
| BR Brazil | — | 10,316 | 1 in 21K | 10K | — | 4 |
| AU Australia | #826 | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.5K | — | Von | 163 |
| AR Argentina | — | 2,927 | 1 in 16K | 2.9K | — | 2 |
| CH Switzerland | #52 | ≈2,800 est. | ≈1 in 3K | — | Von | 163 |
| NL Netherlands | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 7.2K | 5 | Von | 88 |
| SE Sweden | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 7.4K | 59 | Von | 124 |
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: IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). 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)
Von is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Swedish, of; only used in surnames of nobility
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Hungarian, to pull, draw, attract
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Slovak, out, outwards
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In fur, grandfather
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In ggt, full
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Icelandic, hope
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- Franz von Bodmannb. 1908DESS officer (1908–1945)
- Mignon Vonactress
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 46 sources across 24 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 10K | #1,290 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 2.9K | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 25 | #21,629 |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name 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
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 Von mean, and where does it come from?
- Borrowed from German von. Recorded by A Frequency Dictionary of German and Wiktionary and 1 other source.
- In which country does Von have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 12 thousand people named Von in South Africa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled von.
- How do you pronounce Von?
- A machine transcription gives /vɑn/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Von?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 10,316 people named Von, about 1 in 21 thousand residents.
- How common is Von compared with other names?
- In South Africa, Von is the 710th most common surname of 285,788 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Von?
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/vonThe 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, “Von” — the 710th most common surname in South Africa. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.