Surname Heimerich - Meaning and Origin
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Heimerich: What does the surname Heimerich mean?
Heimerich is a German surname. Its origins trace back to the ancient Germanic word 'heim', which means "home". This indicates that those with this surname likely had ancestral roots in Germany.
Heimerich is typically transliterated as Heymerich in modern German. It is found throughout western and central Europe, and is particularly common in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany.
In Germany, the name is most commonly found in the southeastern region of the country near Munich. Those bearing this surname mostly belong to the basic categories of craftsmen, peasants, and landowners.
In Switzerland, the Heimerich name is often linked to farming. It is highly associated with the town of Düdingen, where the potentate and landowner, Abraham Heymerich governed the area for almost three decades. According to records, his descendants held the stewardship for four more generations and their burial plates still exist in the local cemetery.
Heimerich is also found in the United States in many families who immigrated in the 19th and 20th centuries from Germany, Switzerland, or Austria. Among those bearing this name today, the surname Heimerich remains a symbol of belonging to German ancestry and a proud heritage.
Order DNA origin analysisHeimerich: Where does the name Heimerich come from?
The Heimerich surname is primarily found today in Germany and some parts of Switzerland. It is a common German surname, likely derived from the name of the ancient German state of Heim, where the first generations of the Heimerich family lived. Records show that by the late 1800s, the family had spread beyond the Heim state into other parts of Germany and even to the U.S.A.
The Heimerichs have particularly been concentrated in Baden-Württemberg, a southwest German state. Here, in the district of Kornwestheim, census records from 1867 show that the Heimerichs made up the majority of the population. Today, there are still regions in Germany and Switzerland where the Heimerich family name is quite common, particularly in towns such as Stuttgart, Berlin and Zurich.
The U.S. also has its fair share of Heimerichs, with several Heimerichs having emigrated to the U.S from Germany in the late 1800s. Census records from the 1940s and 1950s show that thousands of German Heimerichs had made the U.S. their new home. Most are still concentrated in the Midwest region of the U.S., particularly around the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Variations of the surname Heimerich
The surname Heimerich has numerous variants, spellings and surnames of the same origin. The variants of the name Heimerich include Heimrich, Heimerick, Heimer, Heimerle, Heimerl, Heim, Heimerling and Heimrich.
These various spellings could have arisen due to changes in how the surname was pronunciation. For example, the "ch" sound in Heimerich was likely dropped in older pronunciations, which then became Heimeri. Similarly, the "ick" in Heimerick could be pronounced "le" or even omitted entirely.
Given the variety of spellings, Heimerich could also be found under various surname branches and family trees. A patronymic variant of the surname Heimerich is Heimerichs, while its patronymic hyphenated form is Heimerich-Heimrich. Variants of the family name Heimerich, such as Heimriche, may also be encountered in places inhabited by ancestors of the original Heimerich families.
It is also worth noting that Heimerich could have been simply misspelled due to negligence. For example, if an individual did not have access to reliable records of births or marriages, or was copying off of an illegible document, Heimerich could easily have been transcribed incorrectly and become “Heimerle,” “Heimerl” or even “Heim.”
Overall, the surname Heimerich gives rise to numerous variants, spellings and surnames of the same origin. It is important to note that each branch of the Heimerich family tree could have its own unique spelling or surname.
Famous people with the name Heimerich
- Michael Heimerich: Comedian, actor, podcaster, and writer.
- Thomas Heimerich: German football player.
- Olaf Heimerich: German football player.
- Rainer Heimerich: German football player.
- Frank Heimerich: American former professional baseball player.
- Belinda Heimerich: US Olympic equestrian athlete rider.
- Christopher Heimerich: US National fencing champion.
- Jon Heimerich: American jazz musician, producer, and composer.
- Christian Heimerich: German engineer and inventor.
- Albert Heimerich: German theologian.