How common is the surname Zimmer?

17,146 people in the United States had the surname Zimmer in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 18,007 Americans. It ranked 2,111th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Zimmer?

In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Zimmer identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Zimmer?

Marion Zimmer Bradley, American novelist and editor (1930–1999), followed by Constance Zimmer.

Where is the surname Zimmer most common?

Wikidata records people named Zimmer in the United States, Belgium and Australia.

Is the surname Zimmer getting more or less common?

Less common. 17,315 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 17,146 in 2010, down 1.0%.

The surname Zimmer

A German surname, carried by 17,146 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex Z560

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Zimmer is more common than 98.7% of them.

Origin

German origin

A surname from German.

One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 17,146 people named Zimmer in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 18,007 Americans. That is down 1.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 17,315.

#2,111

rank among US surnames

17,146

people in 2010

5.8

per 100,000 Americans

-1%

change since 2000 (was #1,907)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#2,102	Huddleston	17,231	17,918
#2,103	Hoff	17,223	17,926
#2,104	Staples	17,217	17,933
#2,105	Mireles	17,186	17,965
#2,106	Mohr	17,180	17,971
#2,107	Ambrose	17,178	17,973
#2,108	Bellamy	17,167	17,985

Who is named Zimmer

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

96% of people named Zimmer identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.1% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 96%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
Two or more races 1.1%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Zimmers

11 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Marion Zimmer Bradley
American novelist and editor (1930–1999)
Constance Zimmer
American actress, born 1970
John Todd Zimmer
American ornithologist, entomologist (1889 - 1957)
Carl Zimmer
American science writer and blogger (1966-)
Kim Zimmer
American actress, born 1955
Richard Zimmer
American politician, 1944–2025
Don Zimmer
American baseball manager (1931–2014)
Bradley Zimmer
American baseball player (born 1992)
Louis Zimmer
Astronomer and clockmaker to the King of Belgium (1888–1970)
Tayliah Zimmer
Australian swimmer, born 1985
Esther Lederberg
American microbiologist and pioneer of bacterial genetics (1922–2006)

Notable Zimmers come mostly from the United States (9), Belgium (1) and Australia (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Zimmer

Ziemer

Zimmer has the Soundex code Z560, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code Z560.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Zimmer come from?: Zimmer is German in origin.
How common is the surname Zimmer?: 17,146 people in the United States had the surname Zimmer in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 18,007 Americans. It ranked 2,111th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Zimmer?: In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Zimmer identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Zimmer?: Marion Zimmer Bradley, American novelist and editor (1930–1999), followed by Constance Zimmer.
Where is the surname Zimmer most common?: Wikidata records people named Zimmer in the United States, Belgium and Australia.
Is the surname Zimmer getting more or less common?: Less common. 17,315 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 17,146 in 2010, down 1.0%.