Family name origins & meanings
- South German : diminutive of Gress 1.
- South German : nickname for a big person, from a variant of grössl, a diminutive of gross ‘big’.
- South German : variant of Grässel (see Grassel).
- South German : variant of the personal name Erasmus, Latinized form of Greek Erasmos, a derivative of erān ‘to love’. St. Erasmus (died 303) was a bishop of Formiae in Campania, martyred under Diocletian; he is numbered among the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is a patron of sailors.