Frequency: (135)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from any of various villages called Berez(i)no, Berez(i)na, and Bereza, in Belarus and Ukraine, all derived from an Eastern Slavic noun meaning ‘birch tree’.
2. Russian: topographic name for someone who lived by a birch tree, from Russian bereza ‘birch’+ the Russian possessive suffix -in.
GIVEN NAMES: Russian 21%; Jewish 10%. Boris (3), Gennadiy (2), Yuriy (2), Aleksandr, Aleksey, Arkadiy, Iosif, Nikolay, Pesya, Vitaliy, Vladimir, Yori; Mordechai (2), Gershon, Moshe.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
Dictionary of American Family Names. Copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks. All rights reserved.
