Follow
This is for all the kohanim that are descendants of Shimshon Hakohen Rubin, the grandson of the Shach.
If anybody has profiles to add, or if anybody knows how the family came to call itself Rubin, please send a message.
From Adam Cherson:
"Here is a viable hypothesis for how the surname Rubin came to be (this is from another Rubin family research, not your Kohenite line, but the same logic seems valid):
A book devoted to ....Rabbi Yaakov Rubin ABD Linsk ....mentions that the surname Rubin was originally spelled as ראבין in Hebrew, and only later was it spelled as רובין. The surname is derived from the German word for rabbi. Interestingly, we see this original spelling of the Rubin name ראבין on a grave in Tarnow for the oldest known Rubin family grave in the city: Tzvi Hirsch Rubin (~1851 - 1884).
I'm sure you have considered this before, but for now this seems to be the only explanation: the line became Rubin c 1800, based on Rabin, and then this was back-applied by genealogists to the earlier line, before surnames."