Schoenfeld
A German surname meaning “beautiful field” or “fair field,” originally a place-name or descriptive name.
The #9,539 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,594 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Schoenfeld comes from German schön, meaning “beautiful” or “fair,” and Feld, meaning “field.” The name most likely began either as a habitational surname for someone from a place called Schönfeld or as a descriptive name inspired by a pleasant-looking field. In either case, the core sense is “beautiful field.”
History
The name is well established in German-speaking areas and was later carried into Jewish surname usage in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, as with many German-form surnames. In English-language records it often appears unchanged, though spellings with umlauts or alternate transliterations may also occur. The excerpted source material only gives incidental mentions, not an original etymology, but it aligns with the standard German explanation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The spelling Schoenfeld is often used in place of Schönfeld when German umlauts are simplified for English or international records.
From the historical record
“Schick, Schickler; p.n. Schofield. Fl. Schoenfeld ; a p.n. Scholes. See Skelt Schoobert. G. Schubart; a p.n. Schuster. D. Schuster ; a p.n.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (1st ed.)