Heider

Heider is a German-language surname. The name is generally derived from the word heide, meaning heath, and most likely originated as a habitational or descriptive surname for someone who lived on or near heathland, or from a place associated with heath.

Notable people with the surname include Fritz Heider (1896–1965), an Austrian-born American psychologist who helped found attribution theory and contributed to the study of social perception. He is also associated with the concept of naive psychology and with balance theory, which examines how people form and maintain consistent attitudes within social networks.

Beyond Fritz Heider, the surname is found across German-speaking countries and in diaspora communities, where it appears among individuals in various professional fields, including academia, the arts, and public life. The use of Heider as a family name reflects patterns of surname formation in German-speaking regions, often tied to geography or landscape descriptions.

See also: Heide, Heid.