What is the etymology of the surname Weintz?
Executive summary
The surname Weintz most commonly derives from the German word "Wein" meaning "wine," originally used as an occupational or descriptive surname for someone who produced, sold or lived by vineyards, and it appears in both German and Jewish name-sets igenea.com/en/surnames/w/weintz" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[1] [2]. Commercial genealogy databases record multiple spelling variants and an arrival of Weintz families in the United States in the 19th century, but alternative derivations—most notably connections to the similar name Wentz/Wenz with different medieval roots—are also reported, so multiple independent origins are plausible [3] [4] [5].
1. The simplest, most reported etymology: 'wine' as occupation or locale
Several surname-reference sites state that Weintz comes from the German "wein" (wine) and would have been applied to an ancestor who made, sold or otherwise worked with wine or lived near a vineyard; igenea and related surname pages explicitly make this occupational/locative link [1] [2]. This pattern—German occupational surnames forming from an important product like wine—is common across German-speaking Europe, and the long list of Wein‑ prefixed surnames (Weinberg, Weinmann, Weintraub, etc.) cited by igenea reflects that broader naming practice [1].
2. Jewish usage and documentary traces
Commercial genealogies report that Weintz appears in Jewish records in Germany from the 17th century onward, with igenea noting an early Jewish recording around 1690 in Rothenberg and a documented American immigrant named Abram Weintz arriving in New York in 1873; these entries indicate that at least some Jewish families adopted the wine-derived form in German-speaking lands [1]. Genealogy platforms and sites like Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage catalog 19th- and 20th-century Weintz families in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, reinforcing the surname’s migration and establishment in anglophone records [3] [6] [7].
3. Variant spellings and related surnames—why confusion persists
Multiple variants and near-homophones—Weinz, Weins, Weintz, Weitz, Wentz, Wintz, etc.—are listed across the sources, and commercial databases caution that phonetic similarity does not guarantee shared origin, which complicates etymology for individual families [1] [3] [8]. Surname-hunters should note that spelling changes during migration, clerical recording and dialectal pronunciation can turn Wein into Weintz or Wentz over generations, producing divergent family histories under similar-looking names [3] [9].
4. An important alternative: links to Wentz/Wenz and personal names
Some surname references treat Wentz (and by extension some Weintz/Wentz spellings) as deriving not from "wein" but as a diminutive or short form of Slavic/medieval personal names like Wenceslaus/Wenzo or from Germanic names (Wendelin), especially in regions like Worms–Speyer–Mainz and eastern Germany/Bohemia where those forms were common; surnameorigin.info and genealogical collections articulate this different medieval root for Wentz-type names [4] [5]. That alternative etymology means that for some families the name that looks like Weintz today may descend from a personal name rather than the word for wine, so blanket statements about origin risk error [4] [5].
5. Distribution, migration and what records show about the name’s spread
Population and surname-distribution sources indicate Weintz is most commonly found in the United States today and that the number of people with the name in the U.S. grew markedly between the late 19th and early 21st centuries, whereas records in England show decline over a similar period—findings summarized by Forebears and national genealogy indexes [10] [3]. Genealogy databases maintain regional concentrations (e.g., Ohio in 1880) and compiled family trees and immigration entries that support a migration pattern from German-speaking Europe to North America in the 19th century [3] [6].
6. How to determine which origin applies to a given Weintz family
Commercial sources and genealogy guides advise that determining the correct etymology for an individual Weintz line requires documentary sleuthing—parish registers, Jewish community records, migration and naturalization papers—and possibly DNA projects, because the same spelling can mask independent origins [11] [3]. The available reporting is dominated by compiled genealogy databases rather than peer-reviewed linguistic studies, so family-specific records are the best route to resolve whether an ancestor’s Weintz came from "wein" (wine), from a personal name, or from another local variant [11] [1].