Hess (surname)

Hess or Heß, a German and Ashkenazic surname, meaning somebody originally from the region of Hesse.^[1] Two alternative origins have been reported. Usage in the south of Germany may arise from a contraction of the personal name Matthäus.^[2]

Notable people who share this surname include:

• Adam Hess (born 1981), American basketball player
• Adam Hess (comedian), British comedian
• Alexander Hess (1898–1981), Czechoslovak war pilot part of No. 310 Squadron RAF
• András Hess, Hungarian printer
• Beat W. Hess (born 1949), Swiss businessman
• Bernhard Hess (born 1966), Swiss politician
• Bernhard von Hess (1792–1869), Bavarian Lieutenant General and War Minister
• Carl von Hess (1863–1923), German ophthalmologist
• Catherina Hess, (born 1985), German actress
• Charles R. Hess (1858–1928), American politician from Ohio
• Damian Hess aka MC Frontalot, nerdcore rapper
• Dean Hess (1917–2015), American Air Force Colonel
• Derek Hess, (born 1964), American artist
• Elizabeth Hess (born 1953), Canadian actress
• Elmar Hess (born 1966), German artist
• Eric Hess, American wrestler
• Erika Hess (born 1962), Swiss alpine skier
• Ernst Hess (1893–1917), German World War I flying ace
• Ernst Hess (composer) (1912-1968), Swiss conductor, composer and musicologist
• Ernst Moritz Hess (1890-1983), German soldier, judge, railway administrator, and holocaust survivor
• Fred Hess (1944–2018), American jazz musician
• Fred Hess (Wisconsin) (1858–1925), American politician
• Fred J. Hess (1848–1928), American politician
• Germain Henri Hess (1802–1850), Russian-Swiss chemist
• Greg Hess (born 1962), 16th president of Wabash College
• Hans-Georg Hess (1923–2008), German U-boat captain
• Harry Hammond Hess (1906–1969), American geologist
• Harry Hess, American college sports coach
• Harvey Hess (1939–2012), American lyric poet
• Heinrich von Heß (1788–1870), Austrian fieldmarshall
• Heinrich Maria von Hess, German painter
• Hiester Hess (died 1922), American politician from Maryland
• Hermann Hesse (1877–1962), German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter
• Hieronymus Hess, Swiss drawer, painter, caricaturist (1799–1850)
• Ilse Hess, German writer (1900–1995)
• Jake Hess, American southern gospel vocalist
• Jared Hess (born 1979), American writer and director of Napoleon Dynamite
• Jean-Chrisostome Hess (1816–1900), French composer, pianist, and organist
• Jessica Hess (born 1981), American realist painter
• Johann Hess (Hesse), (1490–1547), German theologian
• John Jacob Hess (1584–1639), Swiss-German Anabaptist minister and martyr
• John L. Hess (1917–2005), American journalist
• Karl Hess (1923–1994), American speechwriter and author
• Karl Hess (painter) (1801–1874), German painter
• Leon Hess Founder of Hess Corporation and the New York Jets franchise
• Lyle Hess, (1912-2002) American sailboat designer
• Markus Hess, German hacker
• Martin Hess (politician) (born 1971), German politician
• Michael A. Hess (1952–1995), American lawyer
• Moses Hess (1812–1875), Jewish philosopher and proto-Zionist
• Myra Hess (1890–1965), British pianist
• Nigel Hess, British composer
• Ortwin Hess, British optician and physicist
• Orvan Hess (1906–2002), doctor who invented the fetal heart monitor
• Per Hess (born 1946), Norwegian visual artist
• Peter von Hess, German painter
• Robert Hess (chess player), American chess grandmaster
• Robert Hess (college president) (1938–1994), American President of Brooklyn College
• Rudolf Hess (1894–1987), Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany
• Rudolf Hess (artist) (1903–1986), Californian painter and art critic
• Sara Whalen Hess Sara Whalen (born 1976), American Olympic soccer player
• Ursula Hess (born 1946), Swiss archer
• Ursula Hess (psychologist) (born 1960), German psychologist
• Victor Francis Hess (1883–1964), Austrian-American physicist who discovered cosmic rays
• W. Dale Hess (1930–2016), American politician
• Walter Rudolf Hess (1881–1973), Swiss physiologist Nobel Prize winner
• Willy Hess (composer) (1906–1997), Swiss musicologist, composer, Beethoven scholar
• Willy Hess (violinist) (1859–1939), German famous violin virtuoso
• Wolf Rüdiger Hess (Heß) (1937–2001), German architect son of Rudolf Hess

See also

• Höss (surname)
• Helius Eobanus Hessus (1488–1540), German Latin poet
• The Hess Homestead
• Hesse (surname)

Notes

1. Rottenberg, Dan (1986). Finding Our Fathers (reprint ed.). Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 51. ISBN 9780806311517. OCLC 13880202 – via Google Books.
2. Hanks, Patrick, ed. (2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 172. ISBN 9780195081374. OCLC 51655476 – via Google Books.