Huehnerfuss (in English) or Hühnerfuß (in German) translates from German to English as “chicken-foot”.

In German, “hühn” means chicken, “fuss” means foot.

In an entry of the German name dictionary of Hans Bahlow, it lists Hühnerfuß, under “chickens”. As meaning from the medium high German hünerer = Hühnerhändler which roughly translates as “chicken dealer.”

With various “takes” on the word, it may be “assumed”, that the name originated as someone who dealt with chickens, raised them, cared for them, etc.

The “hühn” (in German) would be spelled as “huehn” in English – The “ü” is “ue” in English.

In general, an "er" or "ner", added to a surname based on the name of something, denoted that the person worked with that object or at that occupation.

Thus, hühner (in German) would be huehner in English, and roughly means, one who worked with chickens.

This takes us ½ way through the name, and we still need to determine why the “fuss” is on the end of the name. I have my own “theory” on this.

In looking through a German to English translation of “fuss” there are numerous items listed. The obvious is that it means foot, but when used a little differently in the context of a statement it can have a slightly different meaning.

As an example, the following was listed as a translation of the word “fuss” in a German-English dictionary:
“to be on good terms = auf gutem Fuss stehen”.

Thus, my theory is that the name Hühnerfuß, roughly translates to be someone who worked with and was good with chickens.