Surname Groos - Meaning and Origin
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Groos: What does the surname Groos mean?
The last name Groos is of German or Swiss origin. It is most commonly believed to have originated from the Middle High German word "grosse", which means "big", "great", or "grand". This often suggests that the original bearer of the name may have been a larger than normal man, although this is the subject of some debate.
In its original form, the name can also be found as "Gross" or "Grauss", with various spellings in different places. This surname, however, is still mostly found in its Germanic form in various areas. The Groos spelling is used in Northern Germany, while in other states it can be found as Groß.
It is not known exactly when the surname first came to be in Germany, but the earliest recorded reference to the name dates back as far as 1204 A.D., when one "Liutolf Graunis" of Barth, in Lüneburg, signed a document. The name is thought to have become more widespread as people migrated throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and subsequently.
The Groos name now exists throughout Europe and many German immigrants have taken the name with them to the United States. In the US, common misspellings of the name include Groce, Gross, and Groosh. In addition, numerous descendants of the original holders of the Groos name have since Anglicised it to various other spellings, such as Groce, Grocey, Gross, and Grossman.
Order DNA origin analysisGroos: Where does the name Groos come from?
The last name Groos is most common in the Netherlands, where it is ranked as the 128th most common surname. It can be found in a few other places across Europe, including Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and even the United Kingdom. The German city of Groos also boasts this surname, where many residents still carry the name.
Beyond Europe, Groos can be found in many parts of the world, especially in countries with Dutch-speaking populations. This includes parts of South America and Australia, where the name has been adopted through Dutch settlers in the past. It can also be found in North America, where solo emigrants brought the name there in the eighteenth century.
However, it is in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Scandinavian countries were one is most likely to encounter the name Groos. Given its prominence in Dutch speaking societies, one can expect to encounter many variants of Groos, including Gros, Groosman, and Groossen.
Variations of the surname Groos
The surname Groos has several variants, spellings and surnames of the same origin. Groos is a German-Jewish surname derived from the Yiddish word "gruz" which means gruel. The most common variant of this name is Gross. Additional variants include Groz, Groß, Gröss, Groh, and Groeh. Some variations of the name may occur because of the difficulty in pronouncing and spelling the original Yiddish word and because of the different language dialects spoken throughout Europe (mainly German, Polish, and Austrian).
Other surnames which include the same root word as Groos are Grozemauer, Grozec, Groshenbaum, Groshkowitz, Groshovitz, Groszec, Grossbard and Grossbardt. The spelling variations that can be used when searching for a person with this family name are Grose, Groose, Grus and Grouse.
The common spelling of Groos is Gross and the most common variant is Gros. These last two variations have the most frequent occurrences in geographical records. This surname has also been common in countries such as Austria, Germany, and Poland, all places where the Yiddish language was spoken.
All of these surnames and variants stem from the original Yiddish word “gruz”, which has been localized through the different languages spoken in Europe. The surnames Groos, Gross, Groh, Groeh, Groz, Groß, and Gröss all represent the same family name and most likely began as one particular family living in a certain area with the same namesake.
Famous people with the name Groos
- Kurt Groos: German businessman
- Erika Groos: German actress
- Henri Groos: French actor
- Jürgen Groos: German rower
- Fritz Groos: German photographer
- Gerhardt Groos: German mathematician
- Osmo Groos: Finnish writer
- Juval Groos: American entrepreneur
- William Groos: German-Danish writer
- Michael Groos: German sociologist
- Hugo Groos: German politician
- Brigitte Groos- Sigmund: German politician
- Jens Groos: Danish poet
- Wolfgang Groos: German radio director and composer
- Otto Groos: German inventor
- Gerd Groos: German politician
- Christoph Groos: German lawyer
- Jürgen Groos-Wilke: German sprint canoeist
- Bruno Groos: German social historian
- Johanna Groos-Hübner: German astronomer and astrophysicist