Buss Family History

English: metonymic occupational name for a cooper or else a nickname for a rotund, fat man, from Middle English, Old French busse ‘cask’, ‘barrel’ (of unknown origin). The word was also used in Middle English for a type of ship, and the surname may perhaps have been given to someone who sailed in one. The byname seems to occur already in Domesday Book, where a Siward Buss, and a John and Richard Buss are recorded at Brasted in Kent. German and Swiss German: from a pet form of the personal name Burkhard (see Burkhart). Danish: variant of Buus.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press