# Katz (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/katz/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname; variant form Kats.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 31,780 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,101 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 9,715 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.8% (30,615 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /kæts/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

As a Jewish name generally explained as Hebrew כ״ץ (Katz), abbreviation of כֹּהֵן צֶדֶק (kohén tzédeq, literally “righteous priest”). However, the name also exists among non-Jewish Germans, where it is derived from German Katze (“cat”, cf. English Catt), from various placenames (Katzenelnbogen, Katzenberg, Katzenstein), or even from a byform of Ketzer (“heretic”). As evidenced by the Dictionary of American family names, several of these names are also found among Jews. Therefore it remains an open question to what extent the interpretation as “righteous priest” is secondary, given that it was a general practice among Ashkenazi Jews to derive or reinterpret names by phono-semantic matching (a prime example being Cohn, principally a German name from Conrad, but popularized among Jews due to the phonetic similarity with the word for “priest” mentioned above).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Katz in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 95% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.4% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.1% |
| Two or more races | 0.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Katz in the United States, Israel, Argentina, Australia and Austria.

## People named Katz

- Omri Katz, American actor
- Alex Katz, American painter and sculptor (born 1927)
- Phil Katz, American software developer, developer of the ZIP file format (1962-2000)
- Elihu Katz, American and Israeli sociologist (1926–2021)
- Jonathan Katz, American actor and comedian
- Nick Katz, American mathematician
- Ross Katz, American film director
- Steve Katz, American musician
- Mike Katz, American bodybuilder
- Robert Katz, American writer and screenwriter (1933–2010)
- Ana Katz, Argentinian actor, scriptwriter and director
- Sky Katz, American actress, rapper and singer

and 7 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Kates, Kutz, Kautz, Kats, Kotz, Kitts, Kottke, Kotowski, Kotch, Keats, Kowitz.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.