The name VOSS is popularly regarded as coming from Germany and the low countries.  In northern Germany it is well known through the ship building and engineering company Blohm + Voss.  In northern Germany it is familiar in the street as a chain of shoe shops.  In German the initial letter is softened and sounds like the English Foss.  Note this for what follows here.   Germans usually tell me it is a corruption of Fuchs [English: fox].

The name is also familiar in the Netherlands and Belgium, sometimes spelt VOS, which also means fox in Dutch.

There is also a town of Voss in Norway, which is said to be named after its waterfall.  Waterfall is foss in Norwegian.

Emigration from northern Europe has taken the name all over the ‘new worlds’, especially to the USA.

Despite the linguistic associations with foxes and waterfalls, read the page on VAUX.