Kass is a surname. It originated in several different ways, including as a nickname in former eastern territories of Germany from the Czech word kos 'blackbird' or 'shrewd person', from the Estonian word kass 'cat', from the given name Gazo, as an Ashkenazi Jewish surname from the given name Casriel, and possibly as an Americanized spelling of Káš or Kaše. The 2010 United States census found 3,796 people with the surname Kass, making it the 8,655th-most-common surname in the country, compared to 3,523 people (8,599th-most-common) in the 2000 census. In both US censuses, more than nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as non-Hispanic white.