Steinhardt Name Meaning German: from the Germanic personal name Steinhart, composed of the elements stein stone

+ hart hardy, brave, strong. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name composed of German Stein stone + hart hard. Steinhardt is a German word, sometimes used as an adjective, and it means hard as a stone. Stone heart is a common mistake, because in German the word for heart is Herz.

The surname STEINHARDT was a Swedish topographic name for someone who lived either on stony ground or by a notable outcrop of rock or a stone boundary-marker or monument. It was also found as an occupational name for someone who worked in stone, a mason or stone cutter. Many of the modern family names throughout Europe reflect the profession or occupation of their forbears in the Middle Ages and derive from the position held by their ancestors in the village, noble household or religious community in which they lived and worked. The addition of their profession to their birth name made it easier to identify individual tradesmen and craftsmen. As generations passed and families moved around, so the original identifying names developed into the corrupted but simpler versions that we recognise today. In the 17th century, so-called 'soldiers' names are found as the earliest kind of hereditary surnames in Sweden. These names were derived from vocabulary words, usually martial-sounding monosyllables such as Rapp (prompt) Rask (bold), or occasionally names of animals and birds. The names were bestowed on soldiers for administrative purposes, and no doubt in some cases derived from pre-existing nicknames. The names were bestowed on soldiers for administrative purposes, and no doubt in some cases derived from pre-existing nicknames. When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional society, and people often took the names playfully and let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which corresponded to nothing real in their world. No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being changed after emigration to other countries, such as the United States and Israel in recent years. Among Wall Street's famous and wealthiest was Michael STEINHARDT who was reputedly worth in 1989, some twenty million dollars.