Cress
A surname that likely began as a nickname or place-name form linked to cress, the edible herb.
The #6,153 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,480 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cress is most plausibly connected with the word for the herb cress, which entered English through Old English and Middle English forms such as kers and cresse. As a surname, it may have been used as a nickname for someone associated with the plant, a market gardener, or a place-name form built from the same word. The historical record also leaves room for occasional confusion with names like Cresswell, but Cress itself is best treated as a short independent surname rather than a clipped form of that longer name.
History
The name is relatively uncommon in England and the United States, and the few historical references suggest a scattered, not strongly localized, pattern. Early surname writers sometimes grouped it near other cress-derived names, but they do not provide a single settled explanation. In modern records it survives chiefly as a rare American surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One early 20th-century etymologist explicitly noted that English cress goes back to Middle English kers.
From the historical record
“Cai-oline Cress Clara Pillar”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom