SHTAIN Origin of surname
SHTAIN, SHTEIN, STEIN
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
Shtain is a Russian spelling variant, and Shtein is another spelling variant of the Yiddish Shteyn, the equivalent of the Polish Sztejn or the German Stein, meaning "stone/rock". Shtain is both a widespread family name in its own right, as well as a common in Jewish artificial compound family names as a prefix (as in the Jewish family name, Steinberg) or a suffix (as in the Jewish family name, Loewenstein).
This surname is associated with several localities called Stein, situated near Nuremberg (Nuernberg in German), Bavaria (Germany); Krems, Niederoesterreich (Austria); and Schaffhausen (Switzerland). Kamnik in Slovenia, is Stein in German, and the name of a number of places in Poland called Kamien has been translated by Jews into the Yiddish Shteyn. Other related family names include Steinherz, Steinfeld, Steingraber, Steinhaeusser, Steinbach. The name and variants are common among Jewish families from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Switzerland, France, England and the USA. Documented since the 18th century as a Jewish family name, Stein is also a widespread non-Jewish name.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Stein include the German philosopher Ludwig Stein (1859-1930) and the American writer Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). In the 20th century Stein is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Stein family, who lived in the town of Zhadova (Jadova) near Chernowitz, northern Bukovina (now Ukraine), prior to World War II (1939-1945), and whose entire Jewish community was deported to the death camps in July 1941.
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
Shtain is a Russian spelling variant, and Shtein is another spelling variant of the Yiddish Shteyn, the equivalent of the Polish Sztejn or the German Stein, meaning "stone/rock". Shtain is both a widespread family name in its own right, as well as a common in Jewish artificial compound family names as a prefix (as in the Jewish family name, Steinberg) or a suffix (as in the Jewish family name, Loewenstein).
This surname is associated with several localities called Stein, situated near Nuremberg (Nuernberg in German), Bavaria (Germany); Krems, Niederoesterreich (Austria); and Schaffhausen (Switzerland). Kamnik in Slovenia, is Stein in German, and the name of a number of places in Poland called Kamien has been translated by Jews into the Yiddish Shteyn. Other related family names include Steinherz, Steinfeld, Steingraber, Steinhaeusser, Steinbach. The name and variants are common among Jewish families from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Switzerland, France, England and the USA. Documented since the 18th century as a Jewish family name, Stein is also a widespread non-Jewish name.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Stein include the German philosopher Ludwig Stein (1859-1930) and the American writer Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). In the 20th century Stein is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Stein family, who lived in the town of Zhadova (Jadova) near Chernowitz, northern Bukovina (now Ukraine), prior to World War II (1939-1945), and whose entire Jewish community was deported to the death camps in July 1941.