Katz
A German and Jewish surname meaning “cat,” sometimes also a shortened form of names or linked to place-names.
The #1,101 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,715 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Katz comes from the German word for “cat” (Katz/e), and in surname use it was often applied as a nickname or descriptive byname. In Jewish family-name traditions, it can also function as an abbreviation or shortened form in some lineages, rather than being purely a literal animal nickname. Some older sources also note that Katz may occasionally reflect a place-name or another inherited family form, so the history is not always uniform.
History
The name is especially common among German-speaking populations and Ashkenazic Jewish families, where it spread widely in Central and Eastern Europe. In some families it was reinforced by a folk or symbolic association with cats, while in others it became a fixed hereditary surname independent of its original meaning. Because the same spelling can arise from different sources, individual family histories may differ.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some historical writers jokingly translated related German surnames like Katzenellenbogen as “cats’ elbows,” showing how readily cat-based surnames attracted wordplay.
From the historical record
“caisse (Allem.). Katz. Chat (Katze, Allem.). Eaufmann. Négociant (Allem.). Kayser. Empereur (Allem.).”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)