Recorded in many spelling forms including Grushin, Gruszecki, Krusche, Kruschov, Gruszko, Gruskewitz and Kruschel, this Polish, German, Russian and Slavonic surname, often recorded with diminutive or locational suffixes such as "ski", "ewitz" and "zka" is of ancient pre-history origins. It derives from the female given name "Grusha", itself a derivative of the Roman "Agrippina", and the meaning is probably "the one who clears land" or similar. In Europe the name was originally best known as being that of the mother of the infamous Roman emperors Nero and Caligula, although in the 3rd century a.d., a female saint of the same name was martyrd by the Emperor Valerian. A secondary possible origin is locational or job descriptive, "grusha" meaning pear, could describe either a person who lived by or owned, a pear orchard. Examples of the surname recordings taken from various early surviving church registers include Georg Krutsch at Bojanowo, Posen, Germany, on February 2nd 1677, Anna Barabara Gruscke , christened at Czarkov, Poznanskiego, Poland, on January 30th 1734, and Wilelmina Kruschel, of Wilczyca, Poland, on January 1st 1824.. The first known recording of the surname in any spelling is probably that of Aber Gruschli, in the charters of the city of Endingen, Germany, in the eyar 1357.

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