Katz is a common German surname. It is also one of the oldest Ashkenazi Jewish surnames.
Germans with the last name Katz may originate in the Rhine River region of Germany, where the Katz Castle is located. (The name of the castle does not derive from Katze, cat, but from Katzenelnbogen, going back to Latin Cattimelibocus, consisting of the ancient Germanic tribal names of the Chatti and Melibokus.)
As a Jewish surname, Katz is an abbreviation formed from the Hebrew initials of the term Kohen Tzedeq (Hebrew: כּ״ץ), meaning "priest of justice"/"authentic priest" or Kohen Tzadok meaning the name-bearer is of patrilineal descent of the Kohanim sons of Zadok. It has been used since the seventeenth century, or perhaps somewhat earlier, as an epithet of the descendants of Aaron. The collocation is most likely derived from Melchizedek ("king of righteousness"), who is called the priest ("kohen") of the most high God (Genesis xiv. 18), or perhaps from Psalm cxxxii. 9: Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness ("tzedeq"). The use of the abbreviated and Germanicized "Katz" likely coincided with the imposition of German names on Jews in Germany in the 18th or 19th centuries.
If the reading is correct, this abbreviation occurs on a tombstone, dated 1536, in the cemetery of Prague (Hock, Die Familien Prag's, p. 175); it is found also on a tombstone of the year 1618 in Frankfurt (M. Horowitz (Moses Horowitz?), Die Inschriften des Alten Friedhofes der Israelitischen Gemeinde zu Frankfurt-am-Main 1901, p. 63), in the books of the Soncino family of Prague of the seventeenth century (Zunz, Z.G. p. 262), and in one of the prefaces to Shabbethai ben Meïr ha-Kohen's notes on the Choshen Mishpat (Amsterdam, 1663).
People surnamed Katz include:
Ada Katz, American artist's model
Alex Katz, American artist
Alex Katz (baseball), American baseball player
Allan Katz, American comedy writer
Amir Katz, Israeli-born musician
Andy Katz, American college basketball journalist
Sir Bernard Katz, British biophysicist (born in Germany)
Boris Katz, computer scientist
Daniel Katz (psychologist), American psychologist (1903–1998)
Daniel Katz (politician), Mayor of Mar del Plata, Argentina
Danny Katz (columnist), Australian columnist and author
Daryl Katz, Canadian drug store owner, owner of Edmonton Oilers
David Katz (author), British music historian and journalist
Dovid Katz, Lithuanian-American Yiddishist and academic
Elias Katz, Finnish 3,000-meter team steeplechase Olympic champion
Elihu Katz, American sociologist
Emmanuel Mané-Katz, Ukraine-born Israeli artist
Erich Katz (1900–1973), a German-born musicologist and Jewish refugee
Harold Katz, American entrepreneur
Ian Katz, British journalist (born in South Africa)
Jacob Katz, Israeli historian
Jane Katz, competitive swimmer and author of successful swimming books
Jay Katz (disambiguation), name/pseudonym for several people
Jeffrey Katz, American music producer
Jerrold Katz, American philosopher and linguist
Jon Katz (born 1947), American journalist and writer
Jonathan Katz (born 1946), American comedian, actor, and voice actor
Jonathan David Katz (born 1958), American professor
Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938), historian of LGBT American history
Joseph Katz, Comintern member, CPUSA and Soviet spy
Judah Katz, Canadian actor
Leo Katz, jurist
Leo Katz (1914–1976), American statistician
Leo Katz (writer) (1892-1954), Austrian writer
Leon Katz (born 1919), professor emeritus of drama at Yale University
Leon Katz (1909–2004), Canadian physicist
Martin Katz, American collaborative pianist
Mickey Katz, American comedian and musician
Mike Katz, American bodybuilder
Mikhail Katz, Israeli mathematician and professor
Miriam Katz (born 1931), birth name of Miriam Zohar
Nathan Katz (professor), American professor
Nathan Katz (poet), Alsatian poet
Nets Katz, mathematician
Nicholas Katz, an American mathematician
Omri Katz, an American-Israeli actor
Paul Katz, American cellist
Phil Katz, American computer programmer
Phoebe Cates (born Phoebe Belle Katz), American actress
Ralph Katz, American bridge player
Randy H. Katz, UC Berkeley professor
Raphael Katz, American politician
Richard H. Katz, American bridge player
Ronald A. Katz, inventor
Robert Katz (1933–2010), American novelist, screenwriter, and non-fiction author
Ryan Katz, professional wrestler billed as "GQ Money"
Sam Katz, mayor of the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba
Samuel Katz (disambiguation)
Sandor Katz, American DIY writer and food activist
Shane Katz, Typical Canadian dude, famous for shootin' da puck and loving molasses
Sheldon Katz (born 1956), American mathematician
Shemuel Katz (1926–2010), Israeli artist
Sidney A. Katz, mayor of the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland
Simon Katz, English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
Stu Katz, jazz pianist and vibraphonist
Tamar Katz, Israeli figure skater living in the United States
Tuvia Katz (born 1936), Israeli artist
Vera Katz, American politician
Welwyn Wilton Katz, Canadian children's author
William Loren Katz, American historian, specializing in African American history
Yuri Katz, Ukraine-born American music producer
