Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German : habitational name from any of several places named Falkenstein, from Old High German falke ‘falcon’ + stein ‘stone’, ‘rock’, here indicating a medieval castle. This has been a common surname in Germany since the late 14th century.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : habitational name as in 1 or an ornamental name composed of German Falke ‘falcon’ + Stein ‘stone’.
  • George Ness Falkenstein (1859–1949), educator, minister, and historian, wrote a history of the German Baptist Brethren (1900), became a pastor at the Germantown, PA, German Baptist Brethren congregation in 1893, and was ordained in 1899.