Given name & surname
Kiefer
“one who makes barrels”
Kiefer is used as a given name and a surname. One German interpretation is “one who makes barrels.”
Original GermanKieffer
Meaning & origin
What it means
One German interpretation is “one who makes barrels.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is German.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1988. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Kiefer through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,950
- 1,950 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1991
- 204 babies
- 2025
- 6
- #11,399 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −59%
- Cooling
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 6 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 11,399 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 204 in 1991. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,816 as a first name in 2020; 10,420 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Kiefer’s family of names
Kiefer has a related form in Keifer. Kiefer has a related form in Keefer. Kiefer has a related form in Kieffer.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 10
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Kieffervariant · German
- Kiefnervariant · German
- Kieflervariant · German
- Kuefervariant · German
- Küfervariant · German
- Keifervariant
- Keefervariant
- Kuefnervariant
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Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Kiefer
- Kiefer SutherlandBritish-Canadian actor (born 1966)
- Kieffer BellowsAmerican ice hockey playerborn 1998
- Kiefer RavenaFilipino basketball player (born 1993)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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