Family name origins & meanings
- Jewish (Eastern Ashkenazic) : nickname from an eastern Slavic word meaning ‘black’, ‘dark’ (see Chorney). The suffix -ik is a Slavic noun ending.
- Americanized form of Czech, Slovak, and Jewish Černík, nickname meaning ‘the black one’, ‘the dark one’.
- Americanized form of Slovenian Černic or Černič, nicknames derived from črn ‘black’, ‘dark’.