Strauss Family History

German: nickname for an awkward or belligerent person from Middle High German strūz ‘quarrel complaint’. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German strūze German Strauss ‘ostrich’ hence a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of an ostrich or (among the German nobility) a nickname for someone whose coat-of-arms featured an ostrich or a nickname for someone thought to resemble the bird.

In some cases the Jewish surname was artificial. This surname (in any of the possible senses; see also 1 above and 3 below) is also found in some other European countries e.g. in France (Alsace and Lorraine) the Netherlands, Poland, and Czechia.

German: topographic name from Middle High German strūz ‘bush bundle’. Americanized (or Germanized) form of Slovenian Štraus or Štravs (see Straus), Czech and Slovak Štraus, and perhaps also of Polish, Slovenian, etc. Straus 1, all ultimately of the same German origin as the names above.