Kreis
loc · Latin script
Meaning: from a circular field-name, or from Reis; also see Krauts
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 17 countries · latest register: dane.gov.pl, 2026
Kreis is a name written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in Poland.
- PLPoland
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Poland (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 235 (measured from records)
no count published
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)from a circular field-name, or from Reis; also see Krauts
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Kreis counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PL Poland | — | 175 | Kreis | 1 |
| US United States | — | 1.8K | — | 235 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 866 | — | 30 |
| BR Brazil | — | 199 | — | — |
| CZ Czechia | — | 42 | — | — |
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 2020; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames); MVČR — living population register 2017. 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)Kreis is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, topographic name for someone who lived by a circular feature, from Middle Low German kreis (Middle High German kreiz) ‘circle’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, nickname for a noisy person, from Middle High German kreiss, kreisch ‘cry’, ‘noise’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, from German Kreis ‘circle’, ‘circular field’, ‘border’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, circle, district
as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German
In German, circle
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)- Johann Georg Kreisb. 1803CHSwiss merchant and politician (1803-1863)
- Wilhelm Kreisb. 1873DEGerman architect (1873-1955)
- Georg Kreisb. 1943CHSwiss historian of modern age
- Robert Kreisb. 1949NLDutch entertainer and pianist
- Anne Kreisb. 1950FRFrench actress
- Harold Kreisb. 1959DEGerman ice hockey player and coach
- Melanie Kreisb. 1971DEGerman manager
- Jason Kreisb. 1972USAmerican soccer player and coach
- Emmanuel Kreisb. 1977FRFrench historian
- Levi Kreisb. 1981USAmerican musician and actor
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)29 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.8K | #15,671 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.8K | #16,385 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.7K | #15,691 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 866 | #1,384 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 199 | #36,960 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 175 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 175 | #18,586 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 163 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 163 | #19,466 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 42 | #33,224 |
| CZ Czechia | KdeJsme.cz — četnost jmen a příjmení (MVČR population register front-end) | — | 42 | #11,513 |
| 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
- What does the name Kreis mean, and where does it come from?
- from a circular field-name, or from Reis; also see Krauts Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- In which country does Kreis have the most bearers?
- Kreis is most frequently recorded in Poland, where it is most often spelled kreis.
What do you want to know about Kreis?
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/kreisThe 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, “Kreis”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.