Surname:Kummer

Surname meaning for "Kummer"

From Middle High German kummer, kumber ‘grief’, ‘distress’, ‘trouble’, hence a byname for someone who had suffered some loss or other misfortune; or alternatively a topographic name of the same origin for a person living near a rubble heap. Kummer is also a slang word for a penitentiary, and in some instances the surname may have arisen as nickname for a prisoner or a jailer.

Possibly a derivative of the medieval personal name Kunemar, of which the first element is from Old High German kuoni ‘bold’ or chunni ‘people’ (see Konrad); the second is from Old High German mari ‘fame’, ‘glory’.^[1]

References

1. ↑ Ancestry: Kummer Name Meaning, citing the source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press.