Adler (surname)

For other uses, see Adler (surname) (disambiguation).

Adler is a surname of German origin meaning eagle, and has a frequency in the United Kingdom of less than 0.004%, and of 0.008% in the United States. In Christian iconography, the eagle is the symbol of John the Evangelist, and as such a stylized eagle was commonly used as a house sign/totem in German speaking areas. From the tenement the term easily moved to its inhabitants, particularly to those having only one name. This phenomenon can be easily seen in German and Austrian censuses from the 16th and 17th centuries. The term might have been assigned also as a name descriptive of character or outward characteristics.

Die Adler (the eagles) also is a nickname for the Germany national football team.

Notable Adlers

Actors, writers and producers

• Allen Adler, American writer
• Bruce Adler (1944–2008), American actor
• Celia Adler (1891–1979), American Jewish actress
• Charles Adler (broadcaster) (born 1954), Canadian broadcaster
• Charles Adler (stage actor) (1886–1966), American stage and motion picture actor
• Charlie Adler (born 1956), American voice actor
• Chris Adler (actor) (born 1975), American actor
• Cyrus Adler (1863–1940), U.S. educator
• David A. Adler (born 1947), Writer of children's books
• Friedrich Adler (writer) (1857–1938), Czech-Austrian politician
• H. G. Adler (1910–1988), German Jewish poet and novelist.
• Jacob Pavlovitch Adler (1855–1926), born Yankev P. Adler, Ukrainian-born Jewish actor and a star in Yiddish theater
• Jay Adler (1896–1978), American actor in theater, television, and film
• Jerry Adler (born 1929), American theatre director, production supervisor and television and film actor
• Julius Ochs Adler (1892–1955), U.S. publisher, journalist, and United States Army General
• Lou Adler (born 1933), American record producer, manager, and director
• Luther Adler (1903–1984), American actor and director on Broadway
• Margot Adler, (1946-2014), author, journalist, Wiccan Priestess and Elder, NPR correspondent in New York City
• Maurice Adler (1909–1960), American film producer and 20th Century Fox production head
• Max Adler (actor) (born 1986), American actor
• Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902–2001), American Aristotelian philosopher, author, and educator
• Renata Adler (born 1938), American journalist and writer
• Sara Adler (1858–1953), Ukrainian Jewish actress in Yiddish theater
• Sonya Adler or Sonya Oberlander (died 1886), one of the first women to perform in Yiddish theater in Imperial Russia
• Stella Adler (1901–1992), Jewish-American actress and acting teacher

Engineers and scientists

• August Adler (1863–1923), Austrian mathematician
• Charles Adler, Jr. (1899–1980), American inventor
• Darin Adler, software architect
• David Adler (1935–1987), American physicist
• George J. Adler, a noted philologist, linguist and author of A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language
• Howard I. Adler, Biologist, founder of Oxyrase Inc.
• Mark Adler, Mars Exploration Rover mission manager, co-author of zlib, inventor of Adler-32 checksum
• Robert Adler (1913–2007), inventor of the remote control
• Saul Adler (1895–1966), British-Israeli expert on parasitology
• Stephen L. Adler (1939-), American physicist

Musicians

• Chris Adler (drummer) (born 1972), drummer of the metal band "Lamb of God"
• Cisco Adler, the artist featured in all songs of the artist Shwayze
• Guido Adler (1855–1941), Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer on music
• Hans G. Adler (1904-1979), South African pianist, musicologist, and antique keyboard instrument collector
• Henry Adler, American drum kit educator, player and actor
• Hugo Chaim Adler (1896–1955), Belgian composer, cantor, and choir conductor
• James Adler (born 1950), Composer and pianist from Chicago, Illinois
• Julia Rebekka Adler (1978-), German violist.
• Larry Adler (1914–2001), American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players
• Richard Adler (1921–2012), Jewish-American lyricist, composer and producer of several Broadway shows
• Samuel Adler (born 1928), Jewish-American composer and conductor
• Steven Adler (born 1965), a drummer for the hard rock band Guns N' Roses
• Vincent Adler, Hungarian pianist, composer
• Willie Adler (born 1976), guitarist of the metal band Lamb of God

Conductors

• Frederick Charles Adler (1889–1959), London-born conductor known as "F. Charles Adler"
• Kurt Adler (1907–1977), Czech-born Austrian-American conductor, Metropolitan Opera chorus master (1943–1973)
• Kurt Herbert Adler (1905–1988), Vienna-born American conductor, San Francisco Opera general director (1953–1981)
• Peter Herman Adler (1899–1990), Czech-born American conductor, director of NBC Opera Theatre (1950–1964)

Politicians

• Friedrich Adler (assassin) (1879–1960), Austrian politician and murderer, son of Viktor Adler
• John H. Adler (1959–2011), American politician from New Jersey
• Victor Adler (1852–1918), Austrian Social Democratic leader

Rabbis and theologians

• Binyomin Adler (born 1969), founder of Maor Torah Center, Oak Park, Michigan
• Felix Adler (Society for Ethical Culture) (1851–1933), Leader of Ethical Humanism
• Hermann Adler (1839–1911), Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911
• Johann Kaspar Adler (1488–1560), also Kaspar Aquila, Caspari Aquilae, real name Johann Kaspar Adler, German reformer
• Nathan Adler (1741–1800), German kabalist
• Nathan Marcus Adler (ca. 1800–1891), Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1845 to 1891
• Samuel Adler (rabbi) (1809–1891), Reform rabbi

Morris Adler, leading conservative rabbi in Detroit (at Shaarey Zedek, Detroit and later Southfield, MI. Died in approx. 1964.

Athletes

• Anders Adler (born 1982), Swedish ice hockey defenceman
• Daniel Adler (born 1958), Brazilian sailor
• Jens Adler (born 1965), German football player
• Kim Adler, professional bowler
• Nicky Adler (born 1985), German football player
• René Adler (born 1985), football goalkeeper for Hamburger SV

Others

• Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Austrian psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology
• Charles Adler, Jr. (1899–1980), American inventor
• Coleman Adler (1868-1938), Jeweler and founder of Adler's Jewelry in New Orleans in 1898
• Dankmar Adler (1844–1900), German-born American architect
• Freda Adler (born 1934), criminologist
• Friedrich Adler (architect) (1827–1908), German architect and archaeologist
• Friedrich Adler (artist) (1878–1942), German artist and designer, died in Auschwitz
• Jacob O. Adler (1913–1999), Professor of Economics and Business at the University of Hawaii
• Jankel Adler (1895–1949), Polish painter and printmaker
• Jonathan H. Adler (born 1969), Professor of Law at Case Western University School of Law
• Max Adler (Sears) (1866–1952), American businessman and philanthropist
• Max Adler (Marxist) (1873–1937), Austrian social theorist
• Rodney Adler, Australian businessman and white collar criminal
• Solomon Adler (born 1936), Soviet spy who supplied information to the Silvermaster espionage ring

Fictional characters

• Adler von Berg, a Luftwaffe pilot-turned-adventurer, the protagonist of the Belgian comics series Adler by René Sterne
• Grace Adler, female lead in the TV series Will and Grace
• Henry Adler, main character in David Wellington's film I Love a Man in Uniform
• Irene Adler, fictional character featured in the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Scott Adler, a fictional character featured in the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan universe novels. Adler is a career U.S. Department of State employee who rises throughout the series, eventually becoming Secretary of State.
• Vincent Adler, antagonist behind the first two seasons of White Collar
• Wilhelm Adler, main character in Saul Bellow's novella Seize the Day
• Samantha Adler
• Klaus Adler, would-be Führer of the Moon Nazis in the movie Iron Sky (2012).