Nickname
Klein surname meaning
A German, Dutch, Flemish, or Yiddish descriptive surname meaning “small,” often a nickname for a short or junior person.
The short story
Klein is a German, Dutch, Flemish, or Yiddish surname meaning “small.” It could describe a short person, a younger member of a family, or someone distinguished from a larger or older namesake. Kleine, Kleyn, Kline, and Kleinman show regional and immigrant spelling patterns, but they do not establish one shared lineage. A nickname could become hereditary long after the original comparison disappeared. Nickname is the high-confidence catalog type because the descriptive core is direct. The surname says nothing certain about the height or age of a modern Klein.
Also seen as: Kleine, Kleyn, Kleinman, Kline
Sources used
- Ancestry, Dictionary of American Family Names entry 'Klein' (Germanic and Jewish nickname origin)
- Geneanet, 'Klein' surname entry (small or junior descriptive meaning)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)