Find out how popular the last name Greenstein is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Greenstein.

Greenstein, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Greenstein surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Greenstein in America

Greenstein is the 11341st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Greenstein surname appeared 2,782 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Greenstein.

We can also compare 2010 data for Greenstein to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Greenstein

The surname "Greenstein" is of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, derived from the German words "grün" meaning "green" and "stein" meaning "stone." It is believed to have originated in the 13th or 14th century as a descriptive name for someone who lived near a green or grassy area with rocks or stones.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Jewish community records of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where a "Leib Greenstein" is mentioned in the late 16th century. The name also appears in various other German and Polish Jewish communities throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the late 18th century, a notable bearer of the name was Hayim Samuel Jacob Greenstein (1753-1827), a renowned Talmudic scholar and author who lived in Rzeszów, Poland. Another early figure was Jehiel Greenstein (1775-1842), a prominent rabbi and author from Vilnius, Lithuania.

The name "Greenstein" can be found in various historical records, including the Pinkas (community records) of the Jewish communities in Frankfurt, Krakow, and Lviv, among others. It is also mentioned in several old manuscripts and works of literature from the 16th to 19th centuries.

In the 19th century, some notable individuals with the surname include:

• Moshe Greenstein (1819-1898), a prominent rabbi and author from Berdichev, Ukraine.
• Judah Leib Greenstein (1853-1935), a renowned Talmudic scholar and author from Vilna, Lithuania.

In the 20th century, one of the most well-known bearers of the name was Edward Greenstein (1928-2010), an American Judaic scholar and linguist who made significant contributions to the study of Biblical Hebrew and Semitic languages.

Overall, the surname "Greenstein" has a rich history rooted in the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe, where it originated as a descriptive name and was later adopted as a hereditary surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Greenstein

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Greenstein.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Greenstein was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Greenstein has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Greenstein was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Greenstein, please contact us.

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