Kloss
surname · Latin script
Meaning: l.from the south and eastern German personal name Kloss, a short form of Nikolaus, German form of Nicholas
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈkɫɔs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kloss is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country. In Botswana it is the 23rd most common surname.
- DEGermany≈1 in 19K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 113K
- BWBotswana≈1 in 6.6K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Kloss itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 274 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.6K (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,300 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Botswana, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Kloess in PK Pakistan.
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)
l.from the south and eastern German personal name Kloss, a short form of Nikolaus, German form of Nicholas. Compare Klos. The form Kloss is found in Wiiittemberg and Rhineland. 2. nickname from Sorbian klos ‘lanky child’ (hterally ‘stalk’).
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kloss 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 | #915 | ≈4,300 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Kloss | 131 |
| US United States | — | 2,945 | 1 in 113K | 2.9K | Kloss | 274 |
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 131K | — | Kloess | 1 |
| BR Brazil | — | 1,240 | 1 in 171K | 1.2K | — | 1 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 237K | — | Kloss | 5 |
| AR Argentina | — | 409 | 1 in 111K | 409 | — | 1 |
| BW Botswana | #23 | ≈350 est. | ≈1 in 6.6K | — | Kloss | 1 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 61K | — | Kloss | 28 |
| JM Jamaica | — | ≈50 est. | ≈1 in 56K | — | Kloss | 1 |
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; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national). 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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Kloss is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Norwegian Nynorsk, a block (cuboid piece)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, block (a cuboid piece)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Breton, coques, écales, bogues, capsules
as a wordDeshayes, Dictionnaire étymologique du breton (2003)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Frederik Theodor Klossb. 1802DEpainter (1802-1876)
- Cecil Boden Klossb. 1877GBEnglish zoologist (1877–1949)
- Heinz Klossb. 1904DEGerman linguist (1904–1987)
- Hans Klossb. 1905ATAustrian bank manager (1905–1986)
- Henry Klossb. 1929USAmerican audio engineer (1929–2002)
- Hans Klossb. 1938DEGerman artist (1938-2018)
- Eric Klossb. 1949USAmerican jazz musician, saxophonist
- Ilana Klossb. 1956ZASouth African tennis player
- Thomas Klossb. 1956ATAustrian cinematographer
- Karlie Klossb. 1992USAmerican fashion model
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 27 sources across 16 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.9K | #10,815 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.9K | #10,159 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.8K | #10,874 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.2K | #7,611 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 409 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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
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 Kloss come from?
- l.from the south and eastern German personal name Kloss, a short form of Nikolaus, German form of Nicholas. Compare Klos. The form Kloss is found in Wiiittemberg and Rhineland. 2. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Kloss?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkɫɔs/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Kloss mean?
- Recorded meaning: l.from the south and eastern German personal name Kloss, a short form of Nikolaus, German form of Nicholas.
- In which country does Kloss have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.3 thousand people named Kloss in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kloss.
- How common is the name Kloss?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,945 people named Kloss in 2010, about 1 in 113 thousand residents.
- How common is Kloss compared with other names?
- In Germany, Kloss is the 915th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kloss?
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/klossThe 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, “Kloss” — the 915th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.