The Daily Bonnet doesn’t want to leave anyone out. After compiling a list of the most common Russian Mennonite surnames, there were numerous requests to make a Swiss Mennonite list. The problem was I didn’t have access to a Lancaster phone book. However, what I did have was the Mennonite Church USA directory of ministers. So, I went through the entire directory and tallied up the surnames. Here you go: the top 50 most common Swiss Mennonite surnames! Did your name make the top 50?
Rank. Surname – Number of entries in directory
- Miller – 67
- Yoder – 62
- Weaver/Weber – 45
- Horst/Hurst – 28
- Kauffman(n) – 25
- Hostett(l)er/Hochstetter – 24
- Good – 21
- Shenk – 21
- Brubach(k)er – 19
- Landes/Landis – 17
- Zehr – 17
- Gerber/Garber – 16
- Roth – 16
- Ma(u)st – 15
- Lehman – 14
- Wenger – 14
- Stoltzfus – 14
- Bontrager – 12
- Burkholder – 12
- Gingrich – 12
- Peachey/Beachy – 11
- Schrock/Schrag – 11
- Zimmerman(n) – 11
- Bender – 10
- Hershberger – 10
- Martin – 10
- Troyer – 10
- Hoover – 9
- Kreider – 9
- Witmer – 9
- Nafziger – 9
- Nissley/Nisly – 9
- Sauder/Souder – 9
- Kennel – 8
- Schwartzent(d)ruber – 8
- Byler – 7
- Kanagy – 7
- Kraybill/Krehbiel – 7
- Liechty/Lichti – 7
- Nolt – 7
- Sensenig – 7
- Amstutz – 6
- Smucker/Smoker – 6
- Stutzman – 6
- Snyder – 6
- Rohrer – 6
- Shantz/Schantz – 6
- Schowalter – 6
- Stauffer – 5
- Zook – 5
(photo credit: Richard Elzey/CC)