Susskind (German Süßkind "sweet child", variants Suskind, Suskin, Siskind, Ziskind, Ziskin, Siskin, etc.) is a mostly Jewish surname of German origin.
Süsskind in the German medieval period was a given name, not a surname, specifically recorded as carried by Jews since the early 13th century. A Jew named Süsskind is recorded as a physician in the hospital of Würzburg in 1218.
Süsskind, the Jew of Trimberg (Middle High German Sueskint der Jude von Trimperg) is one of the minnesingers whose work is compiled in the early-14th-century Codex Manesse. This poet is otherwise unknown, and there is no proof that the poems recorded under his name are from a single author, but the language of the poems is consistent with an author of the second half of the 13th century native to the Rhineland. There is also a Jewish motif in V.2, where the poet proclaims his intention to leave the courtly sphere and live humbly "in the manner of old Jews", besides possible allusions to Hebrew prayers in I.3.
Süsskind remained a widely used given name among German-speaking Jews into the 19th century.Beginning in the 18th century, some Jews adopted Süsskind as a patronymic surname.[1] Süsskind ceased to be used as a given name around mid-19th-century.[2]
The baronial family of Süßkind is descended from Johann Gottlieb Süßkind, a cousin of theologian Friedrich Gottlieb Süskind, who was given the title of nobility by the king of Bavaria in 1821. The family is descended from one Michael Süßkind, recorded as a citizen of Esslingen in 1425.
The surname was introduced to the United States by the 1880s.[3]