Frequency: (125)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German and Swiss German: nickname from Middle High German kiusche ‘pure’, ‘chaste’; given the word's more extensive meaning in the Middle Ages, ‘gentle’, ‘moderate’, ‘good tempered’, a religious purity may well have been implied.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
