Surname:Geier

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Geier is a common surname in Germany and somewhat less common among German-American people. It is also found as a French surname, and as Russian surname. The latter probably is associated with German emigration to Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries. The surname Geier is often considered to be interchangeable with Geyer, although some sources ascribe a different origin and meaning to the two surnames. German migrants to English-speaking countries often Anglicize Geier as Geyer, though this change has become less common in recent years. Similarly, Geier has often been mistakenly changed to Geyer, and vice versa in legal papers such as birth certificates and migration documents, especially in areas where the name is uncommon, or one version is vastly prevalent.

Many using the surname Geier share an oral history attributing its origins to a heroic band of peasant villagers who climbed high to an aerie and clubbed to death a gigantic raptor (a geier) which had been stealing and eating human babies from their village.

As with the surname "Geier", the surname "Geyer" is primarily associated with the word "vulture". This is often used in a pejorative sense, however (as in "nickname for a greedy or rapacious person, from Middle High and Middle Low German gir(e) as in ‘large bird of prey’, ‘vulture’"). When affixed to a Jewish family, the surname "Geier" is thought by some to have a slightly different meaning. The Yiddish word geyer means "peddler", and it is assumed that when last names became mandatory in Europe, the surname Geier was imposed upon Jewish peasants as a deprecatory label connoting a scheming merchant who takes advantage of the cupidity of others, i.e., a "vulture". The word "geier" more recently has evolved as a "derogatory term for persons from the Middle East".