Kern Family History
Kern Name Meaning
German Dutch and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German kerne ‘kernel seed pip’; Middle Dutch kern(e) keerne; German Kern or Yiddish kern ‘grain’ hence a metonymic occupational name for a farmer or a nickname for a physically small person. As a Jewish surname it is mainly artificial. English (southeastern): metonymic occupational name for a maker or user of milk churns from Middle English kern kirn kurn a side-form of chern ‘churn’. Compare Church . Slovenian: nickname for a stunted person from an old spelling of krn ‘stunted’. Slovenian: possibly also of German origin (see 1 above) used as a translation of the Slovenian surname Žitnik (see Zitnik ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022