Hein
A German surname that began as a short form of Heinrich, the German form of Henry.
The #2,865 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 24,531 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hein is a German surname formed from Hein, a familiar short form of Heinrich. Heinrich itself comes from old Germanic elements meaning roughly "home" or "estate" plus "power" or "ruler," so the underlying sense is "ruler of the household." In surname use, Hein often began as a pet form or nickname that later became hereditary.
History
The historical excerpts consistently connect Hein with Heinrich and related forms such as Heine and Heinen. It is especially common in German-speaking areas, and the same short form also appears in compounds and related surnames. As with many German surnames, the same spelling can sometimes reflect either a family name or a shortened personal name that later froze as a surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Many German surnames that look very short, like Hein, began life as affectionate clipped forms of longer given names.
From the historical record
“Cp. Haas. HEIN(E (Ger.) dim. of Heinrich, q.v. HEINRICH (Ger.) see under Henry in Diet. hIinZ^ I (Ger.) genit. of Hein(e, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Hein
- Piet Hein (1905–1996)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.