Germain
A surname usually meaning “German” or “a person from Germany,” with some families also taking it from Saint-Germain place names.
The #4,816 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 42,109 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Germain is most often an ethnic or regional surname referring to a German person or someone associated with Germany. Older dictionaries also connect it with the French place-name element Saint-Germain, so in some cases it may have begun as a locative surname from one of several places named for a saint. The name ultimately reflects the medieval Latin and French forms used for “German.”
History
The name appears in English records in several spellings, including Germain, German, Germon, and Jermain. Historical surname dictionaries note both direct ethnic use and French influence, especially through Norman and place-name connections. It also spread in Britain through French-speaking and Norman families, which helped produce the surname forms still found today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source notes that Saint-Germain gave its name to numerous places in Normandy, which helped the surname spread beyond a simple “German” meaning.
From the historical record
“docile; one ready to do or learn, amiable, f ra-4 4*w< GERMAIN". (Ger.) A name given to a native of Germany. German is derived from Werr-man, i. e., war-men, a name assumed by the Tungri, in order to strike terror into their Gaelic opponents. The Romans, for want of a W, for Werr- man wrote Gerrman. Yonhammer…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names