Sarrazin was born in Gera, Germany. His father was a doctor and the mother a daughter of a West Prussian landowner. His paternal family, a French Huguenot family, is originally from Burgundy. His grandmother was English-Italian. He has explained that his name means Saracen (i.e. Muslim) and is common in Southern France. It comes from the Arab pirates that were called “Saracens” in the Middle Ages. His mother has a Polish origin. He has referred to himself as "a European mongrel".