Adler (surname)


Adler is a surname of German and Yiddish origin meaning eagle, and has a frequency in the United Kingdom of less than 0.004%, and of 0.008% in the United States.
In Christian iconography, the eagle is the symbol of John the Evangelist, and as such a stylized eagle was commonly used as a house sign/totem in German speaking areas. From the tenement the term easily moved to its inhabitants, particularly to those having only one name. This phenomenon can be easily seen in German and Austrian censuses from the 16th and 17th centuries. The term might have been assigned also as a name descriptive of character or outward characteristics. It is also a common Jewish surname among the Ashkenazi community, where it may have derived from a reference to Psalm 103:5. Many notable people with the surname Adler are of Jewish origin, such as Alfred Adler. Adler is also sometimes used to denote the Jewish origins of fictional characters, such as in Mordechai Richler's Son of a Smaller Hero.

Notable Adlers

Actors, writers and producers