Derived from Middle Dutch masse "clog; cudgel", this name might have been a metonymic occupational name for someone who wielded a club. In some cases, however, it may also have been a patronymic of Maas.
English: variant of Mace French (Picardy): metonymic occupational name from masse ‘mace’, ‘hammer’. French: habitational name from places called Masse (Allier and Cô-d’Or), or La Masse (Eure, Lot, Puy-de-Dôme, Saône-et-Loire). French (Massé): habitational name from a place called Massé in Maine-et-Loire, so named from Gallo-Roman Macciacum (from the personal name Maccius + the locative suffix -acum).