Find out how popular the last name Grasser is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Grasser.

Grasser, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Grasser surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Grasser in America

Grasser is the 17764th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Grasser surname appeared 1,577 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Grasser.

We can also compare 2010 data for Grasser to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Grasser

The surname Grasser is of German origin, with its earliest known roots tracing back to the 14th century in Bavaria and Austria. The name likely derived from the Middle High German word "gras," meaning grass, indicating that the original bearers were likely associated with occupations related to grass, such as farming or working with livestock.

One of the earliest documented instances of the name Grasser can be found in the Bavarian town of Landshut, where a record from 1387 mentions a certain Hans Grasser, a farmer and landowner. Another early record from 1412 in Salzburg, Austria, references a merchant named Peter Grasser, suggesting the name was not exclusively tied to agricultural occupations.

In the 16th century, the name Grasser gained prominence through the scholar and humanist Johannes Grasser, born in Nuremberg in 1492. He was a prominent figure in the Renaissance, serving as a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Ingolstadt and publishing several influential works on classical literature.

The Grasser surname also appeared in various historical documents and records across Central Europe. For example, a 1523 entry in the municipal archives of Regensburg, Germany, mentions a Peter Grasser who was a member of the city council. In the 17th century, a family of brewers named Grasser was recorded in the town of Amberg, Bavaria.

Another notable bearer of the Grasser name was Johann Baptist Grasser, a Bavarian painter and engraver born in 1766. He is renowned for his religious paintings and engravings, many of which adorned churches and monasteries throughout Bavaria and Austria.

In the 19th century, the Grasser surname gained recognition through the work of Eduard Grasser, a German botanist and bryologist born in 1854. He made significant contributions to the study of mosses and published numerous works, including the influential "Die Moosflora von Schlesien" (The Moss Flora of Silesia).

While the Grasser name originated in Germany and Austria, it has since spread to other regions through migration and emigration. Some notable bearers of the surname include the Austrian politician and lawyer Karl Grasser, born in 1950, and the American baseball player Robert Grasser, who played for the Boston Red Sox in the 1940s.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Grasser

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Grasser.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Grasser was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Grasser has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Grasser was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Grasser, please contact us.

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