Lerner Surname History

Origins Available:
England
Israel

The distinguished surname Lerner is a proud symbol of an ancient Jewish heritage. In the Middle Ages, it became important for people to assume surnames, since it was becoming more and more difficult to identify people with the same names, in the crowded towns and cities. The adoption of hereditary surnames, which came from a variety of sources, was a direct solution to this problem. The surname Lerner is an occupational surname, which comes from the Yiddish word lernen, which means student. In Eastern Europe, a young husband would spend all his days studying the Torah, and this, being considered his primary activity, was deemed an occupation.

Lerner Ranking

In the United States, the name Lerner is the 4,226^th most popular surname with an estimated 7,461 people with that name. 1

Lerner migration to the United States +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Lerner Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Mattys Lerner, who arrived in New York in 1709 2

Lerner Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Patrick Lerner, aged 50, who arrived in Delaware in 1803 2
Johann Adam Lerner, who landed in Kentucky in 1854 2
Anton Lerner, who arrived in Kentucky in 1867 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Lerner (post 1700) +

Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986), American lyricist and librettist who won three Tony Awards, three Academy Awards and two Golden Globes
Abba P. Lerner (1903-1982), Russian-born American-British economist who developed the Lerner symmetry theorem and the Lerner Index
Michael C. Lerner (1941-2023), American Academy Award nominated actor, best known for his role as Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink (1991)
Theodore N. "Ted" Lerner (1925-2023), American real estate developer, and managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team, founder of the real estate company Lerner Enterprises, the largest private landowner in the Washington metropolitan area
Maximilian Lerner (1924-2022), Austrian-born, American spy, known for his work in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II, one of the so-called Ritchie Boys
Richard Alan Lerner (1938-2021), American research chemist, best known for his work on catalytic antibodies, President of The Scripps Research Institute, co-winner of the 1994/5 Wolf Prize
Murray Lerner (1926-1927), American Academy Award nominated documentary and experimental film director and producer
Benjamin S. Lerner (b. 1979), award-winning American poet, novelist, and critic
Alfred "Al" Lerner (1933-2002), American businessman and philanthropist
Larry Lerner, American Democratic Party politician, Candidate for U.S. Representative from New Jersey 7th District, 1996 3
... (Another 14 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 3) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html