Surname – FISCHER
Meaning/Origin – The surname FISCHER really does mean “fisher” as in “fisherman.” According to the Dictionary of German Names, Second Edition by Hans Bahlow, the frequency of the name in Germany “is evidence of the former importance of this ancient occupation.” I find it ironic that my particular Fischer’s were actually farmers!
Countries of Origin – The surname FISCHER is German; however the English spelling FISHER is considered to be of English origin. If you are descended from a FISHER, you could have English ancestry or German ancestry in which the “C” was dropped to anglicize the name. In fact, nearly every country has an “equivalent” name derived from the occupation of fisherman. According to the Internet Surname Database,
Recorded in several spelling forms including the popular Fisher (English), Fischer (German), Fiszer (Czech and Polish), Visser (Dutch), de Vischer (Flemish), Fiser (Danish), Fisker (Norwegian), and many others, this interesting surname does seem to have a pre 7th century Old English origin. If so it is from the word ‘fiscere‘ meaning to catch fish, and it may be an occupational name for a fisherman, or it may be a topographical name for someone who lived near a fish weir on a river. Here the derivation is from the word “fisc” plus the Middle English “gere” a development of the Old Norse “gervi” meaning weir or apparatus. It may in some case be an Ashkenazic name for a fisherman from the Yiddish word “fisher“.
According to the World Names Profiler, for the spelling FISCHER the countries with the highest frequency per million residents are Germany with 3,369 individuals per million, Switzerland wtih 3,104, and Austria with 2,139. The next highest countries (and their respective frequency per million) are Hungary (605), Denmark (559), Luxembourg (553), the United States (359), and Canada (267). The English spelling FISHER seems to be slightly less popular, and the countries with the highest frequency per million residents are Australia with 1,211 individuals per million, the United Kingdom with 1,087, the United States with 914, Canada with 864, and New Zealand with 821.
Spelling Variations – As noted above, the most common variation is FISHER. German variations include Fäscher, Ficher, Fischera, Fascher, and Vischer.
Surname Maps – The following maps illustrate the frequency of the FISCHER surname in Germany and Austria. According to http://www.dynastree.com/maps/detail/fischer.html, there are nearly 102,000 people with the surname in the United States, with the heaviest concentration in California. In Germany, there are 270,000 people with the surname, which makes it the 4th most popular surname in the country. Even without the numbers, the surname’s popularity is evident on the map:
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Distribution of the surname FISCHER in Germany.
SOURCE: Geogen Surname Mapping database, http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx, accessed January 16, 2010.
In Austria, the name was the 15th most common surname, and most Fischer’s live in the Wien area.
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Distribution of the surname FISCHER in Austria.
SOURCE: Geogen Surname Mapping database, http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx, accessed January 16, 2010.
Famous Individuals with the Surname – There are many, many famous people with this surname including American chess champion Bobby Fischer, American actress Jenna Fischer, and German historian Fritz Fischer. Wikipedia has a list of all the famous people with the Fischer surname.
My Family -My FISCHER family comes from Bavaria, and it is the surname of my great-great-grandmother, Margarethe Fischer. My line of descent is as follows: Wolfgang Fischer (1775-1820) > Franz Xaver (b. 06 Oct 1813 in Agelsberg – d. unknown) > Margarethe (b. 21 Jan 1845 in Langenbruck – d. 04 Oct 1895 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm).
Margarethe married Karl Echerer on 18 May 1874 after her first husband, Bartholomew Kufer, died. Their first child was Maria, born on 27 February 1875 – my great-grandmother. Maria married Joseph Bergmeister in 1897 and they immigrated to the United States. More information on their children can be found on the Bergmeister Family Page. Maria’s youngest child, my grandmother, was named Margaret – presumably after her mother’s mother. Margarethe and Karl had at least three other daughters, Magdalena, Teresia, and Christina, but I have not yet discovered if they lived to adulthood. They also had at least one son, Karl, who was born on 28 June 1878.
My Research Challenges -My Fischer line is short so far. The towns of Agelsberg and Langenbruck are very small, and the church is located in a town called Fahlenbach. The LDS has microfilmed church records for this town going back to 1732, so I should be able to learn the names of the parents of Wolfgang Fischer.
Other Fischer Families -With a name as common as Fischer, there are a lot of other people researching Fischer’s! There is a Fischer Family Genealogy Forum as well as an Ancestry Fischer Message Board. Fishergenealogy.com has a list of those researching both the Fischer and Fisher surnames.
Links to all posts about my Fischer family can be found here.
This post is #6 of an ongoing series about surnames. To see all posts in the series, click here.
What's Past is Prologue 
Donna:
Thank you so much for this Fischer website. My great, great grandfather was Louis Fischer, born in 1837 in Bavaria and I’ve been searching for his town of birth for over 30 years. He emigrated at age 17 about 1854 and landed in Dubuque, Iowa. He fought in the Civil War, married and had five children, and died young in 1875. He only appears in two US censuses. I’m told he lived near the Black Forest with his uncle, as he was an orphan. They did not get along so his uncle paid for his passage. He heard that Dubuque was very similar to Heidelberg, which he may have visited. I’m about to talk a distant cousin into submitting his DNA to the Fischer research group.
Thank you,
Barbara
hi. im a Fischer from n. Dakota. my grandfather was Daniel james. his father was john, married to clara diemert from Canada. johns father was casper fischer from wertemmburg Germany.bavaria
hello, my birth name is raymond fisher, birth mother name irine sprague fisher per my adoption papers which i have. no father listed. i was adopted in new orleans in early 1942 and my present name is donald mcnulty. any info finding my bith relatives would be greatly appreciated.
My Fischer line is from about a hundred years before you were adopted. Good luck with your research. Perhaps you might consider DNA testing as that’s an easy and effective way to find relatives.