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

Griess, 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 Griess surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Griess in America

Griess is the 22618th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Griess surname appeared 1,135 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Griess.

We can also compare 2010 data for Griess 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 Griess

The surname Griess has its origins in Germany, first appearing in records dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to have derived from the Middle High German word "gries," which translates to "gravel" or "coarse sand." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a gravelly area or worked with gravel.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Griess surname can be found in the town of Weinheim, located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. A man named Hans Griess was mentioned in a church register from the year 1583. Another early record comes from the nearby town of Ladenburg, where a Christoph Griess was documented in a tax record from 1602.

In the 17th century, the Griess surname began to spread further across Germany. A notable figure from this time was Johann Griess, a Lutheran pastor born in 1625 in the town of Graben-Neudorf, located in the Karlsruhe region. He served as the minister in several churches throughout his life and published several religious texts.

As the name continued to disperse in the following centuries, it also started to appear in various spelling variations, such as Griess, Grieß, Gries, and Griess. One example is Jakob Gries, a German theologian and philosopher born in 1775 in the town of Bacharach, who gained recognition for his work on the philosophy of religion.

In the 19th century, the Griess surname crossed the Atlantic, with several individuals bearing the name immigrating to the United States. One such individual was Carl Griess, born in 1839 in Prussia, who served as a private in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Another prominent figure from this era was Peter Griess, a chemist born in 1829 in Germersheim, Germany. He is best known for his discovery of the Griess reagent, a chemical compound used in analytical chemistry to detect the presence of organic compounds containing nitrite ions.

As the 20th century dawned, the Griess name continued to be represented in various fields. For instance, Theodor Griess, born in 1877 in Karlsruhe, was a German architect who designed several notable buildings in his hometown, including the Karlsruhe Palace of Justice.

While this is not an exhaustive list, it provides a glimpse into the rich history and global reach of the Griess surname, which has its roots firmly planted in the German soil.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Griess

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

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 Griess 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 Griess 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 Griess was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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