# Stern (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/stern/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 25,074 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,418 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 12,313 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.9% (24,618 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Sterne |

## Etymology

* As a German and Jewish surname, from the noun Stern (“star”). This was also borrowed into various Slavic languages such as Serbo-Crotian and Slovenian. * As an English surname, from the adjective stern.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Stern in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 94% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.2% |
| Two or more races | 1.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Stern in the United States, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Brazil.

## People named Stern

- Daniel Stern, American actor, artist, director and screenwriter
- Howard Stern, American radio and television personality (born 1954)
- Isaac Stern, American musician (1920–2001)
- Fritz Stern, American historian (1926–2016)
- Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, British economist and academic (born 1946)
- Robert A. M. Stern, American architect (1939-2025)
- Mike Stern, American jazz guitarist
- Bert Stern, American photographer (1929–2013)
- Alan Stern, American planetary scientist
- Shoshannah Stern, American actress
- Jenna Stern, American actress
- Tom Stern, American cinematographer

and 15 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Strain, Strawn, Saetern, Strine, Styron, Saeteurn, Strong, Strange, Stearns, Starnes, Strand, Strunk.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.