The surname "Rubin" is it Jewish?

Question:If not what country is it from? thank you

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If not what country is it from? thank you

Ancestry.com has compiled the top places of origin for the surname "Rubin" from New York passenger lists:

Russia 134
Germany 59
Poland 39
Austria 34
Switzerland 26
Prussen 22

Rubin also has the following meanings, again according to Ancestry.com:
1) Derived from Jewish (Ashkenazic) sources: from the Hebrew person name "Reuven" or possibly a Yiddish, Polish, Ukrainian, or Russian word "rubin" for ruby
2) German and Swiss German for a pet form of the personal name "Ruprecht"
3) Italian variant of "Rubino"
4) French metonymic occupational name for a jeweler, from Old French "rubi," meaning ruby

I hope this information helps.

Maybe yes, maybe no. Religious affiliation wasn't a prerequisite with taking a surname in Europe over the last 500 years. "Rubin" is a misspelling of "Reuben", which is a biblical name. Many who chose that name took it from their fathers and it's likely many of those fathers were Jewish. But it's just as likely they were Russian Orthodox.

Names developed very slowly in Eastern and eastern Central Europe because the lands were in constant geo-political flux between Austria-Hungary, Russia and the multitude of German states (particularly Prussia). Borders moved early and often. Lands were bartered off when peace treaties for distant wars were negotiated. There is absolutely no one single land that you can point to and say, "There, that's the home of every Ruben in Europe."

Instead, pull out a map of Europe and Asia. Take off Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. Leave in every land where poor illiterate immigrants to the US were born, and lands where people had very long, difficult to pronounce surnames that immigrants or their offspring might shorten the names. That's where your ancestors may have originated.

The only way you find more is to trek to the nearest LDS family history center or public library and start doing research back on your family. When you get to the immigrant generations in your family, look for EVERY record on them, particularly INS records from the National Archives. That will tell you every spelling of the name they ever used, which town they were born in, who their parents and siblings were, which ship brought them here from Europe...and they might even list their religious affiliation.

from what i found it looks like a mixed origin of hebrew(behold, a son) and german. there may be other mixed origins in there also.