Ketz
surname · Latin script
Meaning: 1. modem reflex of the Old High German personal name Cazo, which derives from the unexplained root kad-
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈkɛts/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ketz is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- NLNetherlands1 in 173K(measured from records)
- USUnited States1 in 853K
- BRBrazil1 in 1.4M
carrying the name, as counted by each country's national register. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 27 (measured from records)
- 1 in 173K (inferred from the name graph)
390 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- Middle High Germankatze(measured from records)
- Middle High Germanketzer(measured from records)
1. modem reflex of the Old High German personal name Cazo, which derives from the unexplained root kad-. 2. from Middle High German katze ‘cat’; probably short for a more usual derivative such as Ketzel, a nickname for a catlover or breeder, or for someone with feline qualities, or Katzmayr (see Katzenmeyer). 3. nickname from Middle High German ketzer ‘heretic’, ‘free-thinker’.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ketz 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 390 | 1 in 853K | 390 | Ketz | 17 |
| BR Brazil | 153 | 1 in 1.4M | 153 | Ketz | 21 |
| NL Netherlands | 100 | 1 in 173K | 100 | Ketz | 3 |
| PL Poland | 14 | 1 in 2.7M | 7 | — | — |
| AR Argentina | 11 | 1 in 4.1M | 11 | Ketz | 15 |
390 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames). 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)
- Fritz Ketzb. 1903DEGerman painter (1903-1983)
- Wilford Ketzb. 1906USathletics competitor
- Philipp Ketzb. 1984DEeconomist
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 14 sources across 6 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 390 | #53,072 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 389 | #56,668 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 380 | #51,458 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 153 | #45,615 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 100 | #19,006 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 11 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 7 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 7 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 7 | #165,400 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 7 | #164,260 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
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
- Where does the name Ketz come from?
- 1. modem reflex of the Old High German personal name Cazo, which derives from the unexplained root kad-. 2. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Ketz?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkɛts/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Ketz mean?
- Recorded meaning: 1. modem reflex of the Old High German personal name Cazo, which derives from the unexplained root kad-.
- In which country does Ketz have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 390 people named Ketz, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ketz.
- Where is Ketz most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ketz is densest in the Netherlands — about 1 in 173 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Ketz?
- In the United States, the national register counted 390 people named Ketz in 2010, about 1 in 853 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Ketz?
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/ketzThe 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), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
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, “Ketz”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.