主题：【中国】容易读错的姓氏 -- 扔石头的

Here are the actual facts. The surname Hitler is actually a name mangle. The actual surname in it's most common spelling is Hiedler. There was more than one occurrence of the name Hiedler being recorded (usually by some semi-literate clerk somewhere) as Hitler. Of course, the most famous goes without saying. However, even in this case, it wasn't Adolph whose name was mangled, it was his father, Alois Hitler. His father (illegitimate) ultimately took the name of his stepfather, Johann Hiedler but some clerk recorded it as Hitler (also found as Huetler and Huettler).

So the reason the name is rare is that it is actually a name mangle of Hiedler. But aside from the infamous Hitler, there have been a number of occurrences of this particular variant being used.

It also seems (I cannot remember WHERE I heard this so treat this information as suspect), that as a result of WWII and THE Hitler, many people who were carrying the surname spelled Hitler, reverted to the more common Hiedler to completely distance themselves from association with THE hitler. Again, I can't remember where I got that so I can't vouch for the veracity - but sounds good.