what's meant by "stein" in Einstein?

[Dav-X]

Seems that -stein is quite common in jewish family names, like Mermelstein and Einstein. Any idea about the origin of -stein?

[geraldc]

Well it means stone in German, but I don't know if that's of any relevance.

Ah, found this http://www.stevenwillingale.com/genealogy/stein.htm

[xiaoxiajenny]

I only found this: stein=(容量约为一品脱的)陶质(或玻璃)啤酒杯

And if it's Capital S, it is Stein 斯坦(surname)

[gougou]

The Jews in central and eastern Europe spoke Yiddish, a form of German (the main difference probably being that it is written in hebrew letters). They also did not use family names until forced to do so by local governments, which led to the creation of many 'colorful' names, that also today, when retransliterated into the latin alphabet, are 'understandable' by a speaker of German (the Jewish origin is also immediately recognizable.)

Besides -stein, many other endings such as -stern (star) or -berg (mountain) are quite common in these names.

[GentleWind]

In German, ein means "one" and stein means "stone." So, Einstein could be translated as "a stone."