Meaning & History
Drees is a Dutch surname that originated as a variant of Dries, itself a short form of Andries. The name thus belongs to the large family of names derived from Andrew, which ultimately comes from the Greek Andreas, meaning 'manly' or 'masculine'. The short form Dries was common in Dutch-speaking regions, and the variant Drees likely arose as a phonetic or spelling variation, often used as a patronymic surname (originally 'son of Dries') or simply as a surname taken from the given name.
In the wider context of Dutch surnames, names like Drees, Dreesen, Dreesens, and Dreessen are variants that reflect regional pronunciation and diminutive endings. The -sen or -zen suffix is typical of patronymic surnames in the Netherlands and Germany, meaning 'son of'. So Drees(corrected: Drees) can be seen as an older given name.