First name content excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names © 2005 by Marcia Layton Turner. Buy this book online or call 1-800-253-6476.
Last name content copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks.
Last name origin & meaning:
Russian and Jewish (from Belarus and Ukraine): alternative spelling of Chernov, a patronymic from the byname Chernyj ‘black’, denoting a black-haired or dark-skinned person.