Explore the Family Name Riess

The meaning of Riess

German: habitational name from an area of Bavaria so named. Some characteristic forenames: German Mathias, Kurt, Dietmar, Frieda, Fritz, Gerd, Gottfried, Guenther, Hans, Konrad, Otto, Reinhard.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Riess slightly declined between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 15,293rd most popular, but by 2010, it fell to 15,370th. Despite this slight decrease in ranking, the number of people with this surname actually rose during this period. In 2000, there were 1,764 individuals with the surname Riess, and this number increased to 1,908 by 2010, an upward shift of over 8%. The proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 stayed consistent at 0.65.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#15,293	#15,370	-0.5%
Count	1,764	1,908	8.16%
Proportion per 100k	0.65	0.65	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Riess

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Riess saw some changes between 2000 and 2010, according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census. Those identifying as White decreased from 96.03% to 94.60%, while those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander saw an increase from 0.62% to 0.89%. The percentage of individuals with this surname who identified as Hispanic also rose, from 2.21% to 3.14%. Additionally, a new category emerged in 2010: those identifying as Two or more races, which made up 0.68% of individuals with this surname. The data for Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native identities were suppressed for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.03%	94.6%	-1.49%
Hispanic	2.21%	3.14%	42.08%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.62%	0.89%	43.55%
Two or More Races	0%	0.68%	0%
Black	0.62%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%