Korn
A surname that most often comes from the German word for grain or from related words for corn, rye, or a grain dealer.
The #6,278 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 56,734 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Korn is the German word for grain or corn, and it could have begun as a name for someone who dealt in grain or for someone associated with a grain-rich place. In some surname collections, similar forms are linked more specifically to rye or other cereal terms, so the name may sometimes reflect a narrower local meaning. Because short names like this can arise in more than one way, the surname is best treated as broadly grain-related rather than tied to a single exact source in every family.
History
The name appears in German-speaking areas and then spread through later migration into other parts of Europe and North America. In modern records it is also found as a Jewish surname in some families, though the same spelling can have different origins in different lines. The surname is relatively short and common enough to be independently adopted or simplified in several places.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
German surname dictionaries sometimes discuss Korn alongside names built from other food or farm words, because many such surnames began as plain everyday vocabulary.
From the historical record
“(6) Kerneo, KerneC (Fr. Cornouaille), Brittany [cp. Bret, kerneu, pi. of korn, a horn] DARWEN (Celt.) earlier Derwent (river-name) = the White or Clear Water [f. the”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)