Goss Family History

English, German, and French: from the ancient Germanic personal name Gozzo Gauz (Middle English Old French Gosse), short forms of compound names based on the element goz (from gaut, an ethnic name meaning ‘Geat’ or ‘Goth’), rarely also on the element gōd ‘good’ or god, got ‘god’.

In Middle English, Gosse was frequently used as a short form of the double diminutive Goscelin (see Joslin).

Geats (Old English gēatas, Old Scandinavian gautar) were the Scandinavian people formerly occupying modern Götaland in Sweden, their name being closely related to that of the Goths (Old English gotan, Old Scandinavian gotar).

Both ethnic names are presumably derived from a Proto-Germanic word meaning ‘to pour’. The relationship between Geats and Goths is controversial, and in the name elements, the two ethnicities are not always distinguishable.

This surname is rare in France, where the common form is Gosse.