Family name origins & meanings
- German : regional name from the province of Holstein, long disputed between Germany and Denmark. This gets its name from holsten, the dative plural, originally used after a preposition, of holst, from Middle Low German holt-sate ‘dweller in the woods’ (from Middle Low German holt ‘wood’ + sate, sete ‘tenant’). The final syllable has been erroneously altered by analogy with North German Steen ‘stone’, which in South German and standard German has the form Stein.