Show ContentsFauss History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Fauss

What does the name Fauss mean?

With the pressure to have a fixed surname, Jews sought out interesting ways to name themselves. Some gathered at the synagogue and the rabbi opened a prayer book, the first word on a page was then offered to a family, and so on. Some took names from popular characters in literature. While others created matronymic and patronymic names with suffixes like -sohn, -ov, -kin, etc to denote “descendant of”. 1

Fauss, however, comes from the category of nickname surnames, which were originally given to individual based on their character, or physical make-up. The Old High German word "faust" is German for fist, and the name is thought to have been a nickname for a strong or pugnacious person or for someone with a club hand or other deformity of the hand. The German surname Faust is taken from the Latin personal name Fautus, which means 'fortunate', or 'lucky'.

Fauss Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Faust, Fauste, Faustel, Fausst, Fausste, Fauss, Fausse, Fust and many more.


Fauss migration to the United States +



Fauss Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Abner C Fauss, who landed in San Francisco, California in 1850 2


  1. Kaganoff, Benzion C. A Dictionary of Jewish names and their history. Schocken Books, 1977. Digital
  2. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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