Explore the Family Name Gries

The meaning of Gries

1. South German: topographic name for someone who lived in a sandy place, from Middle High German griez ‘sand, pebble’. 2. German: habitational name from any of the places called Gries. 3. Perhaps also a shortened form of German Griese.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Gries in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Gries held a rank of 14,219 in terms of popularity in the year 2000 and slightly fell to 14,474 by the year 2010, indicating a popularity decrease of 1.79 percent. However, the number of individuals bearing this surname interestingly increased from 1,936 in 2000 to 2,063 in 2010, a growth rate of 6.56 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion per 100,000 people carrying the surname Gries dipped slightly from 0.72 to 0.70 over the same period, marking a 2.78 percent decline.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,219	#14,474	-1.79%
Count	1,936	2,063	6.56%
Proportion per 100k	0.72	0.7	-2.78%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Gries

In terms of ethnic identity associated with the surname Gries, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that it is predominantly identified as White, accounting for 94.73 percent in 2000 and declining slightly to 93.70 percent by 2010. The representation of Gries among those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic saw notable increases over this decade, rising by 196.77 percent and 36.56 percent respectively. In contrast, the percentage of those identifying as two or more races surged significantly from 0.31 percent to 1.41 percent. Unfortunately, the data for those identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native was suppressed for privacy reasons in the 2010 census.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.73%	93.7%	-1.09%
Hispanic	2.27%	3.1%	36.56%
Two or More Races	0.31%	1.41%	354.84%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.31%	0.92%	196.77%
Black	2.12%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.26%	0%	0%