Loewenstein
The name Loewenstein may be a variant of Loew and thus of Levi. The Stein suffix means “disguised”.
The names Löw & Loeb are officially derived from Levi and listed among the Levite surnames. I would therefore also derive Loewenstein from Levi.
As seen with Löw & Loeb, the letter Waw can be pronounced as [v], [w], and even as Samaritan [b]. Also, the word root from Levi is a B-V-W case and is written lw and lb in various languages.
A stepwise derivation can be seen in the B-V-W variants listed here.
As of , ThePeerage.com also lists several hundred Loewensteins in V/B/W variants, further confirming the Levi pun. Note that they even shed their “stone” in “Leveson of Stone”.
- Lowen(3)
- Lowenadler (2)
- Loewenstein-Scharffeneck (2)
- Löwenstein von Freudenburg (5)
- Löwenstein (7)
- Löwenstein-Wertheim (6)
- Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (75)
- Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (13)
- Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (124)
- Löwenstein-Wertheim-Virneburg (4)
- Lobenstein (1)
- Lobstein (1)
- Loebenstein (1)
- Levenston (2)
- Leveson of Stone (6)
For another possible Levi variant, see Livingstone.