Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of various places called Burston, in Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, and Staffordshire, which have different origins. The Buckinghamshire place name is from an Old English personal name Briddel + Old English þorn ‘thorn tree’; the place in Norfolk is named with Old English byrst ‘rough ground’, ‘landslip’ + tūn ‘farmstead’; the Staffordshire place name has the same second element, the first being an Old English personal name Burgwine or Burgwulf.
- English : possibly from an unrecorded Old English personal name, Burgstān.
- Jewish (American) : Americanized spelling of Burstein (see Bernstein).