Kretz
surname · Latin script
Meaning: 1. from ahd. Crezzo. 2
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 14 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
/ˈkɹɛts/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kretz is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 34K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 299K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 15K
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)
- Record sources
- 216 (measured from records)
- 1 in 15K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,300 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)1. from ahd. Crezzo. 2. from Pancratius. 3. from ON Mayen
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Where in the world
(measured from records)Kretz 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 | — | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 34K | — | Kretz | 98 |
| US United States | — | 1,112 | 1 in 299K | 1.2K | Kretz | 216 |
| FR France | — | ≈950 est. | ≈1 in 71K | 138 | — | 3 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 558 | 1 in 15K | 558 | Kretz | 35 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈160 est. | ≈1 in 420K | — | Kretz | 21 |
| SE Sweden | — | 156 | 1 in 65K | 156 | Kretz | 22 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 68K | — | Kretz | 36 |
| BZ Belize | #807 | ≈15 est. | ≈1 in 27K | — | Kretz | 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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); 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).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Kretz 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 German, from a reduced pet form of the personal name Pankratz.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, Wahrscheinlich Patronym zu Pancratius mit Umlaut; auch zu mhd. kretze ‘Tragekorb’ oder zu Rufname Crezzo. 1027 Träger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, from the medieval personal name Krezzo.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
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)- Léopold Kretzb. 1907FRPolish painter (1907-1990)
- Henriette Kretzb. 1934PLPolish Holocaust survivor
- Claus Kretzb. 1950DEGerman politician and jurist (1950-2007)
- Joel Kretzb. 1957USAmerican politician
- Michael Kretzb. 1966ATAustrian politician
- Eric Kretzb. 1966USAmerican musician
- Johannes Kretzb. 1968ATAustrian composer
- Jürgen Kretzb. 1982DEGerman politician (born 1982)
- Amélie Kretzb. 1993CACanadian triathlete
- Ludwig Kretzb. 2000ATAustrian bicycle racer
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)24 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.2K | #21,599 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.1K | #21,265 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.1K | #22,989 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 558 | #2,289 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 165 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 161 | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 156 | #5,070 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 150 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 138 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 130 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 117 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 115 | — |
Reference works 6
- 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
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 Kretz come from?
- 1. from ahd. Crezzo. 2. from Pancratius. 3. from ON Mayen Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How do you pronounce Kretz?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkɹɛts/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Kretz mean?
- Recorded meaning: 1. from ahd. Crezzo. 2.
- In which country does Kretz have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.3 thousand people named Kretz in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kretz.
- Where is Kretz most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Kretz is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 15 thousand people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Kretz?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,112 people named Kretz in 2010, about 1 in 299 thousand residents.
- How common is Kretz compared with other names?
- In Belize, Kretz is the 807th most common surname of 11,408 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kretz?
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/kretzThe 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, “Kretz” — the 807th most common surname in Belize. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.