Family name origins & meanings
- German : variant of Nase.
- Norwegian : habitational name from farmsteads in Møre og Romsdal and Telemark, named with Old Norse n{o,}s ‘nose’, used with reference to a nose-like formation in the landscape, for example, a precipitous crag or mountain peak.
- Dutch : from a short form of the personal name Donaas, a derivative of the Latin personal name Donatius, which was known as a saint’s name in medieval times.
- Johannes Naas (1669–1741), a Brethren elder, was a native of Nordheim (near Worms) in the Palatinate, Germany, and a minister in the Marienborn area around 1714. When the Brethren were expelled in 1715, the Naas family, which included five children, moved to Krefeld. Naas was married twice; his first wife died in Krefeld in 1725, and he married again in 1727. With his second wife and a daughter, he emigrated to PA in the autumn of 1733. The family settled in Amwell, NJ, where Naas developed a flourishing congregation. He also helped start congregations in PA, especially at Northkill and Great Swamp. Naas was one of the great preachers and church leaders of the Brethren, both in Europe and in colonial America. He died on 12 May 1741 and was buried near Amwell.