Kummer Family History

German and Swiss German: from Middle Low German kummer Middle High German kumber kummer ‘grief, distress, trouble; rubble, building debris’ in Middle Low German also ‘arrest, prison’ hence a nickname for someone who had suffered some loss or other misfortune; alternatively, a topographic or an occupational name for a person living near or working at a (stone) rubble heap.

In some cases in northern Germany for a person in charge of legal actions such as seizures and arrests. German and Swiss German: possibly also 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 māri ‘fame, glory’.

Germanized form of Sorbian Komor and Komar: from Upper Sorbian komor, Lower Sorbian komar ‘gnat, mosquito’ (see Kommer). In some cases also a Germanized form of Slovenian Kumer.