Kish
Probably an occupational surname related to making or fitting cuisses, the thigh-armor worn in medieval dress and warfare.
The #4,072 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,386 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is most plausibly linked to an occupational term recorded in older surname work as "the kisser," meaning a maker of cuisses, or thigh-armor. In that reading, the surname arose from a person’s trade rather than from a place or a personal name. The spelling has been shortened over time, and the exact historical pathway is not entirely certain.
History
The form appears in English records by the 18th century, and it belongs to the broad class of medieval craft surnames that later became fixed family names. Because the evidence is thin and the spelling is brief, it may also reflect later simplification from a longer occupational form. The modern surname is relatively uncommon in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Cuisses were a real part of armor: they protected the thighs, and a maker of them could be remembered in the surname record as a "kisser."
From the historical record
“1765. —William Woodward and Sarah Kish : St. Geo. Han. So. i. 146. London, i ; New York, i. Kisser. — Occup. 'the kisser,' a maker of cuishes, thigh-armour.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)