text: is geier and koch a jewish or german surname or is it a a german-jewish surname? i'm doing family research. i am not jewish, but i have found families around the world with the surnames geier and koch are jewish. both surnames also come from germany. there are families with these name that are not jewish. i want to determine their ancient origins if possible. koch means cook in german. many surnames are terms for jobs. (e.g. schmidt means smith). geier means vulture in german. there are jewish and non-jewish people named koch.  i'm not sure about geier.