Strauss or Strauß is a common German surname. It occurs in the spellings Strauß, Strauss, Straus, Strouse (an English transliteration), or Štraus (a Czech or Serbo-Croat transliteration). In Switzerlan, and outside the German-speaking countries, Strauß is usually spelled Strauss, since the letter ß exists only in the German alphabet, but is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Possible misspellings include Straub and Stras. Commonly misinterpreted as Straße or Strasse, the German word for street, many emigrants to America or England were renamed Street.