Family name origins & meanings
- German : habitational name from a house distinguished by the sign of a gryphon, Middle High German grīf(e) (Old High German grīf(o), from Late Latin gryphus, Greek gryps, of Assyrian origin).
- German : nickname for a grasping man, the gryphon in folk etymology having come to be associated with Middle High German grīfen ‘to grasp or snatch’.
- English : variant of Grief.