Hesse
surname · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Hesse is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country. In German, recorded as Toponymic surname from Hessen; in the atlas as patronymischer schwacher Genitiv, especially centered in the Duisburg–Krefeld area. Apocopated variants include Heß.
- DEGermany≈1 in 3.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 43K
- USUnited States1 in 55K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 329 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈26,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Toponymic surname from Hessen; in the atlas as patronymischer schwacher Genitiv, especially centered in the Duisburg–Krefeld area. Apocopated variants include Heß.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Hesse is read(measured from records)
Hesse is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English48%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Hesse in English.
- German36%
Toponymic surname from Hessen; in the atlas as patronymischer schwacher Genitiv, especially centered in the Duisburg–Krefeld area. Apocopated variants include Heß.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte
Toponymic surname of German origin, derived from a place/region or dwelling/landscape name. Bearer count: 11945.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte
tribal name from Hassi; also from Hasso as a personal name
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Hessian (native or inhabitant of the state of Hesse, Germany) (usually male)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Toponymischer Familienname: aus Hessen / „bei den Hessen“; Formen auch Heße, Hessen, Heßen; Bearer count: 11,945.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte
- French5.4%
Hesse (a state of modern Germany)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Hesse counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #145 | ≈26,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.1K | listed | Hesse | 187 |
| US United States | — | 6,084 | 1 in 55K | 6.1K | Hesse | 329 |
| FR France | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 49K | 164 | — | 4 |
| DZ Algeria | — | ≈970 est. | ≈1 in 45K | — | Hesse | 1 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈880 est. | ≈1 in 74K | listed | Hesse | 91 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈590 est. | ≈1 in 43K | — | Hesse | 95 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 405 | 1 in 43K | 405 | Hesse | 30 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 287 | 1 in 29K | 287 | Hesse | 36 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 43K | — | Hesse | 32 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; the dfa-band-4 register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadtb. 1577DEGerman nobleman
- Louis VI of Hesse-Darmstadtb. 1630DELandgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (1630-1678)
- Ferdinand, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburgb. 1783DElandgrave of Hesse-Homburg
- Otto Hesseb. 1811DEGerman mathematician (*1811 – †1874)
- Fanny Hesseb. 1850USGerman biologist (1850-1934)
- Hermann Hesseb. 1877DENobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877–1962)
- Ninon Hesseb. 1895UAart historian (1895-1966)
- Mary Hesseb. 1924GBEnglish philosopher (1924-2016)
- Barbara Hesse-Bukowskab. 1930PLPianist, music educator (1930-2013)
- Eva Hesseb. 1936USGerman-born American sculptor and textile artist (1936-1970)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 35 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 6.1K | #5,697 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 5.9K | #5,406 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 5.7K | #5,814 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 405 | #4,940 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 287 | #4,550 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 258 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 226 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 224 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 214 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 179 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 169 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 164 | — |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Hesse mean, and where does it come from?
- Toponymic surname from Hessen; in the atlas as patronymischer schwacher Genitiv, especially centered in the Duisburg–Krefeld area. Apocopated variants include Heß. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte.
- In which country does Hesse have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 26 thousand people named Hesse in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled hesse.
- How common is the name Hesse?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,084 people named Hesse in 2010, about 1 in 55 thousand residents.
- How common is Hesse compared with other names?
- In Germany, Hesse is the 145th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Hesse?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/hesseThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Hesse” — the 145th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.