Family name origins & meanings
- Slovenian : topographic name from grad ‘castle’.
- Possibly also a Slovenian and Polish nickname from the obsolete noun grad ‘hail’ (in the sense ‘precipitation’).
- German : borrowing of 1 or alternatively a nickname either from Middle High German grātac ‘greedy’ or, in the south, from Middle High German gerāde ‘swift’, ‘skillful’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German gerade ‘upright’.