Meiss
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Meiss is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: topographic name from Middle High German meiss ‘felling area’, ‘felled timber’.
- USUnited States1 in 889K(measured from records)
- DEGermany≈1 in 110Kas Meiß
- CDCongo - Kinshasa≈1 in 103K
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 Meiss 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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 156 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 103K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,900 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Congo - Kinshasa, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Meiß in DE Germany.
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)
topographic name from Middle High German meiss ‘felling area’, ‘felled timber’.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Where in the world(measured from records)
Meiss 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 726K | — | Meiss | 1 |
| CD Congo - Kinshasa | ≈990 est. | ≈1 in 103K | — | Meiss | 1 |
| DE Germany | ≈730 est. | ≈1 in 110K | — | Meiß | 62 |
| US United States | 374 | 1 in 889K | 419 | Meiss | 156 |
| FR France | ≈300 est. | ≈1 in 227K | 48 | — | 1 |
| AT Austria | ≈28 est. | ≈1 in 319K | — | Meiss | 9 |
| SG Singapore | ≈19 est. | ≈1 in 323K | — | Meiss | 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; 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)
Meiss is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In non, a wooden box, basket
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)
- Heinrich Meissb. 1400CHSwiss politician, 14. century - 1427
- Léon Meissb. 1896FRFrench magistrate (1896-1966)
- Millard Meissb. 1904USAmerican art historian (1904–1975)
- Bernard Meissb. 1947FRFrench politician
- J. D. Meissb. 1953USmath professor and researcher
- Henri Meissb. 1963FRFrench wrestler
- Rudolf MeissCHSwiss politician, 14./15. century
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 14 sources across 7 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 419 | #53,327 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 374 | #54,990 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 357 | #54,152 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 52 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 48 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 41 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 38 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 37 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 31 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 31 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 30 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 30 | — |
Reference works 3
- 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)
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 Meiss mean, and where does it come from?
- topographic name from Middle High German meiss ‘felling area’, ‘felled timber’. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- In which country does Meiss have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.9 thousand people named Meiss in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled meiss.
- How common is the name Meiss?
- In the United States, the national register counted 374 people named Meiss in 2010, about 1 in 889 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Meiss?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/meissThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 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, “Meiss”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.