Grill Family History

German: nickname for a cheerful person from Middle High German grille ‘cricket’ (Old High German grillo from Late Latin grillus Greek gryllos). The insect is widely supposed to be of a cheerful disposition no doubt because of its habit of preferring hearths and warm places. The vocabulary word is confined largely to southern Germany and Austria and it is in this region that the surname is most frequent.

This surname is also found in Czechia and Slovenia (see 4 below). German: habitational name from any of the eight places in Upper Bavaria and Austria perhaps so named from Middle High German grille ‘cricket’ (see 1 above). North German: nickname for an angry man from Middle Low German grellen ‘to be furious to shriek’.

Germanized or Americanized form of Slovenian Gril: nickname from gril ‘cricket’ also ‘cockroach’ a word of German origin (see 1 above).

English: nickname for a fierce or cruel man from Middle English grill(e) ‘angry vicious’ (from Old English gryllan ‘to rage to gnash the teeth’).