Switzer Family History

English: variant of Sweetser in a spelling reflecting a false association with the English word Switzer ‘Swiss man’. The earliest record of Switzer as an English word denoting a Swiss person is from 1577. It is unlikely that this word independently gave rise to an English surname but it was evidently used to render the German name Schweitzer borne by some of the ‘poor Palatines’ Protestant refugees from southwestern Germany who landed in London in 1709.

From there they were shipped to the New World (especially New York) and to Ireland where they were mostly settled in County Limerick. Anglicized or Americanized form of German Schweitzer ‘Swiss man’ or Swiss German Schwyzer a habitational name for someone from the city or canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.

It is also found in Ireland (see 1 above).