How common is the surname Bernstein?

17,916 people in the United States had the surname Bernstein in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 17,233 Americans. It ranked 2,015th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Bernstein?

In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Bernstein identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Bernstein?

Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (1918–1990), followed by Elmer Bernstein.

Where is the surname Bernstein most common?

Wikidata records people named Bernstein in the United States, Belarus and the United Kingdom.

How do you pronounce Bernstein?

Bernstein is /ˈbɝnstaɪn/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Bernstein getting more or less common?

Less common. 17,969 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 17,916 in 2010, down 0.3%.

The surname Bernstein

A German surname, carried by 17,916 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈbɝnstaɪn/ 2 syllables Soundex B652

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Bernstein is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

German origin

Borrowed from German Bernstein and Yiddish בערנשטיין (bernshteyn).

One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 17,916 people named Bernstein in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 17,233 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 17,969.

#2,015

rank among US surnames

17,916

people in 2010

6.1

per 100,000 Americans

-0.3%

change since 2000 (was #1,834)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#2,006	Platt	18,022	17,132
#2,007	Fernandes	18,018	17,135
#2,008	Abreu	17,998	17,154
#2,009	Doty	17,965	17,186
#2,010	Crum	17,944	17,206
#2,011	Yi	17,934	17,216
#2,012	Corley	17,931	17,219

Who is named Bernstein

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

95% of people named Bernstein identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.0% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 95%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Two or more races 1.0%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.1%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Bernsteins

27 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Leonard Bernstein
American conductor and composer (1918–1990)
Elmer Bernstein
American composer and conductor (1922-2004)
Carl Bernstein
American journalist (born 1944)
Daniel J. Bernstein
American German mathematician, cryptologist and programmer, born 1971
Mark Bernstein
Belarusian entrepreneur and Wikimedian (1965–)
Jared Bernstein
American economist, born 1955
Jeremy Bernstein
American physicist, 1929–2025
Walter Bernstein
American screenwriter and film producer (1919-2021)
Charles Bernstein
American writer, born 1950
Theresa Bernstein
American artist and writer (1890-2002)
Herman Bernstein
American journalist, poet, novelist, playwright, translator, Jewish activist, and diplomat, 1876–1935
Dorothy Lewis Bernstein
American mathematician (1914–1988)

Notable Bernsteins come mostly from the United States (25), Belarus (1) and the United Kingdom (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Bernshteyn

Surnames that sound like Bernstein

Bernstein has the Soundex code B652, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B652.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Bernstein come from?: Borrowed from German Bernstein and Yiddish בערנשטיין (bernshteyn).
How common is the surname Bernstein?: 17,916 people in the United States had the surname Bernstein in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 17,233 Americans. It ranked 2,015th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Bernstein?: In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Bernstein identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Bernstein?: Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (1918–1990), followed by Elmer Bernstein.
Where is the surname Bernstein most common?: Wikidata records people named Bernstein in the United States, Belarus and the United Kingdom.
How do you pronounce Bernstein?: Bernstein is /ˈbɝnstaɪn/, 2 syllables.
Is the surname Bernstein getting more or less common?: Less common. 17,969 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 17,916 in 2010, down 0.3%.
What are other spellings of Bernstein?: Bernshteyn.