Frequency: (2326)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. German: metonymic occupational name for a goatherd or nickname for a stubborn person, from Middle High German geiz ‘goat’.
2. German: habitational name for someone who lived in a house marked by the sign of the Holy Spirit (normally depicted as a dove), from Middle High German geist ‘spirit’. Both Geist and Heilgeist occur as house signs in Frankfurt am Main in the mid-14th century.
3. North German: topographic name for someone who lived in an area of barren sandy soil, Middle Low German gēst.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
