Cross surname meaning
A surname associated with a cross, a crossing place, or a person who carried a cross in church.
Confidence: Disputed. More than one origin is plausible, or sources disagree. We show the conflict rather than pick a cute answer.
The short story
Cross has several documented surname histories. It can be a topographic name for someone who lived near a roadside or river crossing, or near a cross-shaped landmark. It can also refer to a religious cross and, in some English explanations, to a person who carried a cross in a church procession. Crosse and Cros are older or regional spellings, while similar-looking names are not automatically related. This catalog uses the place category because the crossing-place explanation is a clear lead, but marks Cross disputed because religious and occupational formations could have produced the same spelling.
Also seen as: Crosse, Cros, Croft
- Ancestry/Dictionary of American Family Names entry 'Cross' (topographic, religious, and occupational streams)
- BabyNames.com, '1,000 Most Popular Last Names in the U.S.' (Cross surname senses)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)