A German surname-name meaning “tanner,” referring to someone who prepared leather.
Gerber is a surname of German and Swiss-German origin, derived from the Middle High German gerber, meaning "tanner" — one who tans animal hides into leather. It belongs to the large category of occupational surnames that proliferated across Germanic Europe in the medieval period, when a family's trade became their inherited identity marker. The name spread through Switzerland, Germany, and German-speaking communities in France (Alsace) and Eastern Europe, carried by the descendants of craftsmen who worked in the leather trade.
As a surname, Gerber achieved global household recognition through the Gerber Products Company, founded in 1927 by Daniel Frank Gerber in Fremont, Michigan, which essentially invented the commercial baby food industry and whose iconic baby-face logo became one of the most recognized brand images of the 20th century. The Gerber name also belongs to notable figures including Rube Goldberg (whose mother was a Gerber), Swiss footballer Stephan Lichtsteiner (who played for a club called Gerber), and various scientists and entrepreneurs. The name has been used occasionally as a given name in the United States, reflecting the broader American tendency to repurpose surnames as first names.
Using Gerber as a given name is a bold, unconventional choice — one that places a child firmly in the tradition of surname-as-first-name that has produced Tanner, Cooper, Fletcher, and other occupational-surname given names. It carries a sturdy, Germanic quality and an unmistakable cultural resonance through the baby food brand association, which lends it an unexpected warmth in the context of naming a child. Parents who choose it likely value its strength, its surname-style distinctiveness, and the quiet humor of naming a new baby after the world's most famous baby brand.