Find out how popular the last name Widmer is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Widmer.

Widmer, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Widmer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Widmer in America

Widmer is the 9722nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Widmer surname appeared 3,336 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Widmer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Widmer to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Widmer

The surname Widmer is of Swiss-German origin, with the earliest known records dating back to the 16th century. It is derived from the Middle High German word "wit," meaning "wide" or "broad," and the suffix "-mer," which was a common element in German surnames indicating a person's occupation or physical characteristics.

The name Widmer likely originated in the German-speaking regions of present-day Switzerland, where it was initially used as a descriptive surname referring to someone with a broad or wide physical stature or perhaps someone who lived near a wide meadow or clearing. The earliest recorded spelling variations of the name include Wytmer, Witmer, and Wittmer.

One of the earliest known bearers of the Widmer name was Hans Widmer, a Swiss farmer and landowner who lived in the canton of Zurich in the late 16th century. His name appears in local parish records and land registry documents from that time period.

In the 17th century, the Widmer surname began to spread beyond Switzerland to other German-speaking regions of Europe, including parts of present-day Germany and Austria. Johann Widmer (1639-1711), a German-born poet and satirist, was a notable bearer of the name during this period.

As the Widmer family dispersed throughout Europe over the centuries, the name took on various spellings and regional variations, such as Wiedmer, Wiedemann, and Weidmann. Some notable individuals with these variations of the name include:

1. Johann Wiedmer (1702-1780), a Swiss Protestant theologian and author.
2. Christoph Wiedemann (1770-1840), a German botanist and plant collector.
3. Gustav Weidmann (1827-1908), a German industrialist and founder of the Weidmann electrical engineering company.
4. Theodor Wiedemann (1857-1923), a Swiss architect and urban planner.
5. Franz Wiedmer (1891-1970), a Swiss Olympic athlete who competed in gymnastics.

While the Widmer surname has its roots in Switzerland and southern Germany, it has since spread to various parts of the world through emigration, with significant populations of Widmers and variations of the name found in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Widmer

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Widmer.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Widmer was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Widmer has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Widmer was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Widmer, please contact us.

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