Where the name and the people come from

Because the name Vonier is very rare in the USA and even in Europe, most of the "Vonier's" do not know where this name comes from. The name Vonier, Vanier, Viniere is documented since 1552 in the city archive of Schruns,  a town in the state of Vorarlberg/Austria. (click image).

And probably the name Vonier is originated in the name of  Saint Vinerius.

The region where the Voniers have their roots is called Montafon.  This was a very poor but beautiful area (today tourism brings money) and is located in the southern part of Vorarlberg in the Austrian Alps, including the cities and villages of Bludenz, Innerberg, Silbertal and Schruns.

Only there was in the past - and still is - a concentration of people with the name Vonier. Settled since Celtic times (4th century BCE), the Montafon  inhabitants were generally isolated until the coming of the Walsers (emigrants from the Swiss canton of Wallis). Because the Montafon was so poor in former centuries, people emigrated to the north along the natural water ways as the Rhine to Southern Germany and later to the USA.

So you will find among the 137 registered Vonier phone users in Germany (from about 30 millions all in all) most of them in the southern part, south of Stuttgart.

Some numbers

The Vonier households in 2001 (phonebook):