Guess
A surname that most likely began as a reduced form of Guest.
The #4,507 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 39,226 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is usually explained as a shortened or altered form of Guest. In older English, Guest comes from an Old English personal name, Gyst or Gist, related to the idea of a guest or visitor. The surname Guess is therefore best understood as a later spelling variant rather than a separate word with its own clear meaning.
History
Lower explicitly glossed Guess as a corruption of Guest, and that remains the standard explanation in older surname dictionaries. The related surname Guest is documented very early in English records, so Guess likely arose through dialectal spelling change and simplification over time. It is uncommon today, especially in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it looks like the ordinary English word guess, the surname is easy to misread, but its family-history trail usually leads back to Guest rather than to the verb "to guess."
From the historical record
“GUERRIER. Fr. A warrior, soldier. GUESS. A corruption of Guest. GUEST. Gest, an A-Sax. name occur- ring in Domesd. and before, and signifying GUESTLIXG. A parish in Sussex. GUILLB. See under ]\ [auger. Tlie Jersey family sent some branches to Eng- land, wliere they altered the orthography to Gill.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom