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Strauss

Family name

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
7 min read
Source updated August 24, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Strauss, Strauß, or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria Strauß is usually spelled Strauss (the letter "ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland).

In classical music, "Strauss" most commonly refers to Richard Strauss or Johann Strauss II.

The name has been used by families in the Germanic area for at least a thousand years. The overlord of Gröna, for example, went by the name of Struz and used the image of an ostrich as his symbol. Examples of it could still be seen on the thousand-year-old church bell of that town. "Struz" or "Strutz" is the North-German form of the word "Strauss", which is the modern German word for ostrich.

Some of the earliest Jewish bearers of the name hailed from the Judengasse in medieval Frankfurt, where families have been known by the name of the houses they inhabited. All the houses had names and these included Haus Strauß, complete with an image of an ostrich on the façade.

When, for tax purposes, Napoleon made surnames obligatory in 1808, some other Jewish families decided to adopt the Straus(s) name.

01Notable people

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02Fictional Strauss characters

  • Mrs. Strauss, an elderly client of Jimmy McGill whom he assists with estate planning in the Better Call Saul episode titled "Alpine Shepherd Boy"
  • Akabara Strauss, Vampire King from the manga The Record of a Fallen Vampire
  • Dr. Arthur Strauss, fictional character who served as the original mentor of serial killer and cult leader Joe Carroll, lead character in the TV series The Following
  • Artie Strauss, fictional character based on the real life murderer Richard Loeb of the infamous murder duo Leopold and Loeb
  • Erin Strauss, fictional FBI section chief played by Jayne Atkinson in the TV series Criminal Minds
  • Hans and Greta Strauss, inspiration for the fairy tale of "Hansel and Gretel" according to the Buffy episode "Gingerbread"
  • Justice Strauss, fictional character from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
  • Leopold Strauss, loan shark and bookkeeper of the Van der Linde gang in the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Maximilian Strauss, leader of the Tremere clan of vampires in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
  • Judge Robert Strauss, fictional character who presided over Carrie Mathison's competency hearing in Homeland
  • Roman Strauss, fictional conductor-composer from the 1991 psychological thriller Dead Again
  • Tracy Strauss, fictional character from NBC's science fiction TV series Heroes by Tim Kring
  • The Strauss siblings, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna. All three are wizards and Fairy Tail guild members from the manga Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima.
Watch videos about StraussExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Strauss”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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