The surname "Wagner" is derived from the Germanic surname Waganari, meaning 'wagonmaker' or 'wagon driver.' The surname is German but is also well-established in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, eastern Europe, and elsewhere as well as in all German-speaking countries, and among Ashkenazi Jews.
The Wagner surname was first found in Saxony, where the family became a prominent contributor to the development of the area from ancient times.[3] The alternatively spelled surname Wegner has its origin in Silesia.
This common occupational surname was often given to one who transported produce or other goods via high-sided wagons or carts. Among some German populations, especially the Pennsylvania Germans, Wagner also denoted a wagon-maker, wainwright, or cartwright.[4]
People with the surname Wagner
- Adolph Wagner, (1835–1917), German economist
- Agnieszka Wagner (born 1970), Polish actress
- Allan Wagner (born 1942), Peruvian diplomat
- Allan R. Wagner (1934–2018), American experimental psychologist and learning theorist
- Alex Wagner (born 1977), American television host, liberal journalist and author
- Andreas Wagner (born 1967), Austrian-American evolutionary biologist
- Andreas Wagner (politician) (born 1972), German politician
- Ann Wagner (born 1962), American politician, U.S. Representative from Missouri
- Annett Wagner-Michel (born 1955), German chess master
- Wagner (footballer, born 1966) (born Antonio Wagner de Moraes in 1966), Brazilian football forward
- Arthur Wagner (1824–1902), English clergyman from Brighton
- Ashley Wagner (born 1991), American figure skater
- Audrey Wagner (1927–1984), American baseball player (1943–1949), obstetrician and gynecologist
- Austin Wagner (born 1997), Canadian professional ice hockey player playing for United States teams
- Ben Wagner (born 1980), American radio sportscaster
- Billy Wagner (born 1971), American Major League Baseball player
- Blake Wagner (born 1988), American soccer coach
- Bobby Wagner (born 1990), American NFL football player
- Carl-Ludwig Wagner (1930–2012), German politician
- Charles Wagner (1852–1919), French pastor and author who was invited to preach at the White House
- Chris Wagner (born 1991), American National Hockey League player
- Cosima Wagner (1837–1930), director of the Bayreuth Festival, daughter of Liszt and widow of Richard Wagner
- Dalton Wagner (born 1998), American football player
- Daniela Wagner (born 1957), German politician
- Dan Wagner (born 1963), British entrepreneur
- Dan Wagner (data scientist)
- Danny Wagner, American basketball player
- David Wagner (disambiguation), several people
- David A. Wagner (born 1974), American computer security and cryptography researcher
- David L. Wagner (born 1956), American entomologist
- Dennis Wagner (born 1958), American football coach
- [[Dennis Wagner (chess player)] (born 1997), German chess grandmaster
- Dietrich Wagner (1945–2023), German engineer
- Dinara Wagner (born 1999), German chess woman grandmaster
- D. J. Wagner (born 2005), American basketball player
- Eberhard Wagner (born 1938), German academic, linguist and author
- Eduard Wagner (1894–1944), quartermaster-general of the German Army in World War II
- Eric Wagner (1959–2021), American heavy metal vocalist
- Florence Signaigo Wagner (1919–2019), American botanist who served as president of the American Fern Society
- Franz Wagner (basketball) (born 2001), German basketball player
- Franz Josef Wagner (born 1943), German journalist
- Friedelind Wagner (1918–1991), German writer and broadcaster, daughter of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner
- Fridolin Wagner (born 1997), German footballer
- Gary Wagner (baseball) (born 1940), American baseball player
- George D. Wagner (1829–1869), American politician, farmer and Union general during the American Civil War
- Gerhard Maria Wagner (born 1954), Austrian Roman Catholic priest who was nominated auxiliary bishop in Linz, but didn't accept
- Gerhard Wagner (physician), (1888–1939), the first Reich Doctors' Leader (Reichsärzteführer) of Nazi Germany
- Gottfried Wagner (born 1947) writer and critic of the Wagner family, son of Wolfgang Wagner
- Gudrun Wagner (1944–2007), second wife of Wolfgang Wagner
- Günter P. Wagner (born 1954), Austrian biologist
- Guillermo Wagner Granizo (1923–1995) American ceramic tile muralist in Northern California.
- Gustav Wagner (1911–1980), Austrian Nazi SS officer at Sobibór extermination camp
- Gustav Wagner (disambiguation)
- Harvey M. Wagner (1931–2017), American management scientist and professor
- Haylie Wagner (born 1993), American softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch league
- Heinrich Leopold Wagner (National Pro Fastpitch), German dramatist and author
- Henry Michell Wagner (1792–1870), Vicar of Brighton 1824–1870
- Honus Wagner (1874–1955), American baseball player
- Ina Wagner (born 1946), Austrian scientist and university professor
- James Elvin Wagner (1873–1969), American clergyman
- James Wagner (poet) (born 1969), American poet
- James W. Wagner (born 1953), president of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
- Jane Wagner (born 1935), American writer, director and producer
- Jaques Wagner (born 1951), Brazilian federal government's Minister of Defence
- Jasmin Wagner (born 1980), stage name Blümchen, German singer, actress, model and spokeswoman
- Jenny Wagner (born 1984), German physicist and cosmologist
- Jenny Wagner (author) (born 1939), Australian writer for children
- Jens-Christian Wagner (born 1966), German historian
- Jill Wagner (born 1979), American actress
- Johann Wagner (footballer) (born 1990), Australian rules footballer
- Johann Peter Alexander Wagner (1730–1809), German rococo sculptor
- Johann Andreas Wagner (1797–1861), German zoologist
- Johann Philipp Wagner (1799-1879), German merchant and inventor
- John Wagner (born 1949), American-born British comics writer
- Josef Wagner (disambiguation), several people
- Kai Wagner (born 1997), German footballer
- Karl Willy Wagner (1883–1953), German pioneer in the theory of electronic filters
- Karl Edward Wagner (1945–1994), American horror, science fiction and fantasy writer
- Katharina Wagner (born 1949), German opera director, daughter of Wolfgang and Gudrun Wagner
- Klaus Wagner, (1910–2000) German mathematician
- Kurt Wagner (general) (1904-1989), German general
- Lindsay Wagner (born 1949), American actress
- Martin Wagner (disambiguation), several people
- Mary Wagner (born 1949), American politician and jurist
- Matt Wagner (born 1961), American comics writer and artist
- Melinda Wagner (born 1957), American composer
- Mike Wagner (born 1949), American retired football player, retired football coach, and bank officer
- Mirel Wagner (born 1987) Ethiopia-born Finnish singer-songwriter
- Moritz Wagner (naturalist) (1813–1887), German explorer, collector, geographer and evolutionary biologist
- Moritz Wagner (basketball) (born 1997), German basketball player
- Nándor Wagner (1922–1997), Hungarian sculptor
- Neil Wagner (born 1986), South African-born New Zealand cricketer
- Neil Wagner (baseball) (born 1984), American Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball player
- Nike Wagner (born 1945), German dramaturge, daughter of Wieland Wagner
- Nikolai Wagner (1829–1907), Russian zoologist, writer and psychic researcher
- Otto Wagner (1841–1918), Austrian architect and urban planner
- Paul Wagner (born 1967), American baseball player
- Paula Wagner (born 1946), American film and theatre producer and film executive
- Renan Wagner (born 1991), Brazilian footballer
- Richard Wagner (1813–1883), German composer
- Richard Wagner (judge) (born 1957), Canadian judge and 18th Chief Justice of Canada (2017–present)
- Richard Wagner (novelist) (1952–2023), Romanian-German novelist
- Richard E. Wagner (born 1941), American economist
- Richard K. Wagner, American psychologist and professor
- Richard Paul Wagner (1882–1953), Chief of Design for Deutsche Reichsbahn 1922–1942; standardized locomotive designs
- Robert Wagner (born 1930), American actor
- Robert Wagner (disambiguation), several people
- Robert F. Wagner (1877–1953), American politician, U.S. Senator from New York
- Robert F. Wagner Jr. (1910–1991), American politician and mayor of New York City
- Robert Heinrich Wagner (1895–1946), German Nazi Gauleiter and Reich Governor of Alsace, executed for war crimes
- Robin Wagner (figure skater), American retired skater and skating coach
- Robin Wagner (designer) (born 1933), Broadway set designer
- Ruth Wagner (born 1940), German politician
- Ryan Wagner (born 1982), Major League Baseball player
- Sandro Wagner (born 1987), German footballer
- Siegfried Wagner (1869–1930), German composer and conductor, son of Richard and Cosima Wagner
- Stanley Wagner (disambiguation), several people
- Steve Wagner (disambiguation)
- Sue Wagner (born 1940), American politician
- Thomas Wagner (disambiguation)
- Tini Wagner (1919–2004), Dutch swimmer
- Tyler Wagner (born 1991), American Major League Baseball and Atlantic League of Professional Baseball player
- Thomas M. Wagner (c. 1824–1862), Confederate artillery officer and eponym of Fort Wagner
- Viktor Wagner (1908–1981), Russian mathematician
- Vladimir Wagner (1849 –1934), Russian psychologist and naturalist
- Walter Wagner (footballer) (born 1949), German footballer
- Walter Wagner (notary) (1907–1945), German notary who married Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun
- Warren H. Wagner (1920–2000), American botanist
- Warren Lambert Wagner (born 1950), American botanist and botanical curator for the National Museum of Natural History
- Webster Wagner (1817–1882), American railroad inventor, manufacturer and politician
- Wieland Wagner (1917–1966), German opera director and producer, son of Siegfried Wagner and Winifred Wagner
- Wilhelm Richard Wagner, full name of German composer Richard Wagner
- Wilhelm Wagner (scholar) (1843–1880), a German scholar of Greek poetry
- Wilhelm Wagner (entomologist) (1895–1977), German entomologist
- Willi Wagner (born 1941), German Olympic athlete
- Winifred Wagner (1897–1980), British-born director of the Bayreuth Festival, wife of Siegfried Wagner and friend of Adolf Hitler
- Wolfgang Wagner (1919–2010), German opera festival director, younger brother of Wieland Wagner
- Wolfgang Wagner (social psychologist), Austrian social psychologist
Fictional characters
See also
References
