Kaiser
also Keizer
'The emperor' — Caesar's name worn as a nickname.
- Origin
- German
- Famous bearer
- Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967), American industrialist
- Register
- German family
The seat of Kaiser
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Kaiser community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Kaiser has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Kaiser clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Kaiser clan →What does the Kaiser name mean?
Descriptive — Middle High German keiser, emperor — and like König a nickname, for a man of lordly bearing or the winner of a festival crown. The word descends directly from the Latin Caesar, the title carried unbroken from Rome into German.
The history of Kaiser
Kaiser, like König, crowned no one for real: it was the by-name for the man who gave himself imperial airs, or who was made 'emperor' of a guild or shooting-match for a year. Behind it stands one of the great fossils of European history — the German Kaiser is the Latin Caesar, the dead dictator's name become the very word for emperor, carried from Rome to Charlemagne to the Hohenzollerns.
Its largest American chapter belongs to Henry J. Kaiser, son of a German immigrant, the industrialist who built dams, ships and a health empire — whose wartime yards turned out Liberty ships faster than the enemy could sink them, and whose worker health plan became Kaiser Permanente. The emperor's nickname, written across 20th-century American industry.
Explore With Your Ancestors · Beta
Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth — the Kaiser country, or a shore no Kaiser ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.
Notable bearers of the Kaiser name
- Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967), American industrialist