Family name origins & meanings
- 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 habitational name for someone who lived at 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 ornamental.
- Dutch : from a Germanic personal name, Strūsso.