Hess or Heß, a German and Ashkenazic surname, meaning somebody originally from the region of Hesse. Two alternative origins have been reported. Usage in the south of Germany may arise from a contraction of the personal name Matthäus, whereas appearance in Germany or The Netherlands may arise from a modification of the personal name Hesso.
Notable people who share this surname include:
András Hess, Hungarian printer
Bernhard Hess (born 1966), Swiss politician
Bernhard von Hess (1792–1869), Bavarian Lieutenant General and War Minister
Carl von Hess (1863–1923), German ophthalmologist
Catherina Hess, (born 1985), German actress
Damian Hess aka MC Frontalot, nerdcore rapper
Dean Hess (1917-2015), American Air Force Colonel
Elizabeth Hess (born 1953), Canadian actress
Elmar Hess (born 1966), German artist
Eric Hess, American wrestler
Erika Hess (born 1962), Swiss alpine skier
Fred Hess (born 1944), American jazz musician
Fred Hess (Wisconsin) (1858-1925), American politician
Germain Henri Hess (1802–1850), Russian-Swiss chemist
Gregory Hess (born 1962), 16th President of Wabash College
Hans-Georg Hess (1923-2008), German U-boat captain
John Jacob Hess (1584-1639), Swiss-German Anabaptist minister and martyr
Harry Hammond Hess (1906–1969), American geologist best known for his theories on sea floor spreading
Harry Hess, American college sports coach
Harvey Hess (1939-2012), American lyric poet
Heinrich von Heß (1788–1870), Austrian fieldmarshall
Heinrich Maria von Hess, German painter
Hieronymus Hess, Swiss drawer, painter, caricaturist (1799-1850)
Jake Hess, American southern gospel vocalist
Jared Hess (born 1979), American writer and director of Napoleon Dynamite
Johann Hess (Hesse), (1490–1547), German theologian
Karl Hess (1923–1994), American speechwriter and author
Karl Hess (painter) (1801-1874), German painter
Leon Hess Founder, Chairman of the Board & CEO of Hess Corporation and the New York Jets NFL Football franchise until his death
Markus Hess, German hacker
Michael A. Hess (1952-1995), American lawyer
Moses Hess (1812–1875), Jewish philosopher and proto-Zionist
Myra Hess (1890–1965), British pianist
Nigel Hess, British composer
Ortwin Hess, British optician and physicist
Orvan Hess (1906–2002), doctor who invented the fetal heart monitor
Peter von Hess, German painter
Rudolf Hess (1894–1987), Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany
Victor Francis Hess (1883–1964), Austrian-American physicist who discovered cosmic rays
Walter Rudolf Hess (1881–1973), Swiss physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949
Willy Hess (violinist) (1859–1939), German famous violin virtuoso
Willy Hess (composer) (1906–1997), Swiss musicologist, composer, and famous Beethoven scholar
Wolf Rüdiger Hess (Heß) (1937–2001), German architect, right extremist and son of Rudolf Hess
