Staufer Last Name: Meaning and Heraldic Roots

It is easy to miss Staufer in an index if you only search for Stauffer. The name is generally explained as “Steep rock / cup”. Staufer drops the “f” of Stauffer, a simplification that clerks often made. Regional accents shaped spellings long before dictionaries fixed them. Other spellings include Stouffer.

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Staufer, so the heraldry linked to Stauffer is a starting point, not an automatic right. Want more than a summary? See the Staufer family name pack.