Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : habitational name from any of various places called Hammerstein, from Old High German hamar ‘rock’, ‘crag’ + stein ‘stone’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name composed of German Hammer ‘hammer’ + Stein ‘stone’.
- Hammerstein is the name of a Hanoverian family, which originated in a small place of this name on the Rhine opposite Andernach. The most famous bearer of the name is Oscar Hammerstein (1895–1960), the Jewish-American song writer, whose surname is of ornamental origin. He was the grandson of Oscar Hammerstein (1848–1919), an operatic impresario who came to America c. 1863 and made a fortune with a machine that rolled cigars.