Grass

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Graß in DE Germany, ES Spain, CH Switzerland and 1 more and Grace in KR South Korea, IT Italy, PH Philippines and 1 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Grass is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese name1.4K records spelled Grass2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil

  Also written Gráss

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Grass is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Gaelic greusaich, griasaich ‘decorator, embroiderer’, later ‘shoemaker’; first attested John Grasse alias Cordonar 1539 Black

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• topographic name for someone who owned or lived by a meadow, or a metonymic occupational name for someone who made or sold hay, from Middle English gras. Middle High German gras ‘grass’, ‘pasture’, ‘grazing’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• nickname for a stout man, from Anglo-Norman French gras ‘fat’, from Latin crassus (which was itself used as a Roman family name), with the initial changed under the influence of grossus (see Gross).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• occupational name, reduced from Gaelic greusaiche ‘shoemaker’. A certain John Grasse alias Cordonar (Middle English cordewaner ‘shoemaker’) is recorded in Scotland in 1539.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• nickname for an irascible man, from Middle High German graz ‘intense’, ‘angry’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

FR INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) — 11 years between 1891–1991. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Philippe Grassb. 1801FRFrench artist (1801–1876)
• Fritz Grassb. 1891DEGerman politician
• Friedrich Grassb. 1902DEGerman politician (1902-1971)
• Günter Grassb. 1927DEGerman novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor (1927-2015)
• Alex Grassb. 1927USAmerican businessman (1927–2009)
• Ute Grassb. 1936DEGerman organist and teacher, wife of writer Günter Grass (1936-2021)
• Anelb. 1944MXnot in their usual nameMexican actress and model
• Vincent Grassb. 1949BEBelgian actor
• Brigitte Grassb. 1953DEGerman fencer and economist
• Helene Grassb. 1974DEGerman actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 69 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Grass?

We estimate roughly 355 thousand people bear Grass (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.

In which country does Grass have the most bearers?

We estimate about 322 thousand people bear Grass in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled grass.

How common is Grass compared with other names?

In North Korea, Grass is the 256th most common given name of 2,373 given names recorded there.

What does the name Grass mean?

Recorded meaning: Either a person living on grassland, a shoemaker, or a nickname for a fat person.