Werner

Where Werner comes from

Werner hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1889
    First appearance
    #789 among boys, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1901
    Werner Heisenberg born
    German theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner
  3. 1930
    Peak, #634
    93 babies named Werner — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1934
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #942.
  5. 1942
    Werner Herzog born
    German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Werner Heisenberg · German theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner, 1901–1976
  • Werner Herzog · German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director, born 1942
  • Werner von Siemens · German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist, 1816–1892
  • Werner Faymann · Austrian politician who was Chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, born 1960
  • Werner Arber · Swiss microbiologist and geneticist, born 1929

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.