FIDLER
Fidler is a surname of English provenance, originally an occupational name denoting a professional fiddle or violin player.
The Middle English word fideler is the source of the name; it is a direct reference to a fiddler. In the Middle Ages it was common for surnames to arise from nicknames that described a person’s trade or a prominent personal trait, and Fidler is a direct illustration of this practice.
Early documentary evidence records the surname in the 12th century. William Visdelou is noted in the Pipe Rolls of Suffolk in 1160, King Henry XI the Builder of Churches. In 1275 the Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire mention John le Fithelard, while a 1379 Poll Tax Return lists John Fydeler of Yorkshire.
The name continues in later parish registers, such as the marriage of Robert Fidler to Joan Shereman at St. Dunstan’s, East, in 1567, and the christening of William Fidler’s son in Stepney in 1663.
In continental Europe the surname is found under the Germanic spelling Fiedler, a form that appears frequently in 19th century Germanic census records. The name also appears in North America, where the United States Census of 2000 recorded it as the twelfth‑fourthousandth most common surname, roughly one in fifty‑five thousand individuals, and the Canadian census listed it as the forty‑ninth most common name, about one in twenty‑five thousand.
Geographical concentrations of the name include Alberta and Quebec in Canada, and Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Oregon, Michigan, New York and California in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the 1881 census listed over 1,100 occurrences of the variant Fiddler.
The surname has many orthographic variants. Common ones include Fiddler, Fedler, Fiddle, Fidlor, Fidlur, Fiddleur, Fidylar, Fiddlyar, and Fiddlerly. Related surnames of the same origin are Fidlera, Fiddlerly, Fidlery, Fiddlerely, Fidleri, and Fidde la. Other spellings found in Austria, Germany and Switzerland consist of Fedlor, Fiddeler, Fiddlera, Fiddloer, Fidder, Fiddlero, Fiddlyer, and Fiddloor.
The heraldic arms most associated with families bearing the surname feature a gold shield with three black wavy bars, a crest comprising a demi‑griffin emerging from a gold ducal coronet.
Through its long history the surname Fidler reflects a lineage that began as a professional musician and expanded across several centuries and continents, maintaining its recognition in both Britain and abroad as a name of enduring heritage.
Typical given names associated with the Fidler surname
Male
- Andrew
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Joanne
- Julie
- Karen
- Margaret
- Mary
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Sheila
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Fidler in...
Braille
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Morse
..-...-...-....-.
Semaphore
Did you know?
According to a survey carried out by Democracy Club, politicians and candidates with the surname Fidler are most likely to say that their favourite biscuit is a Rich Tea.
There are approximately 2,868 people named Fidler in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,113th most common surname in Britain. Around 44 in a million people in Britain are named Fidler.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Fidler
- Michael Fidler - Politician (1916 to 1989)
- Frank Fidler - Football player (1924 to 2009)
- Dennis Fidler - Football player (1938 to 2015)
- Alwyn Sheppard Fidler - Architect (1909 to 1990)
- Peter Fidler - Canadian explorer (1769 to 1822)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.