Scottish and northern English: topographic name for someone who
lived by a stream or streams, from the Middle English nominative
plural or genitive singular of burn (see Bourne).
Scottish: variant of Burnhouse, habitational name from a
place named with burn ‘stream’ + house ‘house’.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Broin (see
Byrne).
Jewish (American): Americanized and shortened form
of Bernstein.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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