Frequency: (1847)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Polish (Karaś); Hungarian (Kárász); Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovenian (Prekmurje), and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Slavic karas ‘crucian carp’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a carp fisher or possibly a nickname for someone with a fishlike appearance. As a Jewish name it is mainly an ornamental name.
2. Greek: from a nickname meaning ‘black’ (see Caras).
3. Hungarian: topographic name for someone living by the Karas river, a tributary of the river Danube, named with Turkish kara ‘black’ + suğ ‘water’.
4. German: from a short form of the personal name Zacharias or of the Greek saint's name Makarios, meaning ‘blessed one’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
