Stein Family History

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German stein German Stein ‘rock’ hence a topographic name either for someone who lived on stony ground or for someone who lived by a notable outcrop of rock or by a stone boundary marker or monument. It could also be a metonymic occupational name for a mason or stonecutter, or among Jews, an artificial name.

This surname is also found elsewhere in central Europe, e.g. in Czechia, where it is also spelled Štein, and in Poland. Dutch: from a shortened form of the personal name Augustijn (see Austin) or a habitational name from any of the Dutch places called Stein.

Norwegian: habitational name from any of ten or more farmsteads, notably in southeastern Norway, from Old Norse steinn ‘stone’, most often named from a big rock on the farm.

English (London) and Scottish (Lanarkshire and West Lothian): variant of Steen.