Tracing the Keiser Family Name

It is easy to miss Keiser in an index if you only search for Kaiser. Read literally, Keiser points to “Emperor”.

Keiser coat of arms

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Keiser, so the heraldry linked to Kaiser is a starting point, not an automatic right.

A variant of Kaiser

Keiser writes “e” in place of the “a” found in Kaiser, a typical scribal difference. Census takers and immigration officers often wrote what they heard.

In the 2010 US Census, 7,348 Americans gave Keiser as their last name (rank 4,809). French civil records give 348 births under the name Keiser from 1891 to 2000, peaking in 1981–1990. For the full story, order the Keiser surname pack.