Göppert

Göppert is a German surname. In German orthography it contains the umlaut over the o (ö); in non- umlaut contexts it is commonly rendered as Goeppert. The name is found primarily in German-speaking regions and in countries with German diaspora communities, and it also appears in Anglophone contexts in the Goeppert or Goeppert Mayer variants.

The exact origin of Göppert is not definitively established. As with many German surnames, it may be toponymic—derived from a place name—or patronymic, reflecting a family connection to an ancestor with a related given name. Variants and transliterations arise from differences in spelling practices across time and language.

Notable bearers of the name include Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906–1972), a German-born American theoretical physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 for her development of the nuclear shell model. Her work helped explain why certain numbers of protons and neutrons lead to especially stable atomic nuclei, a foundational contribution to nuclear physics. The surname is relatively uncommon and is most often encountered in historical and biographical contexts related to its German origin.