There are two versions of the origin of this family name. One says that it comes from a German word that is translated as "merchant". According to another version, Kaufman was used as a "kinui" (name for everyday use) for the name Yakov.

Judging by the areas of the name spread, it originates form the German-speaking communities of the Jewish diaspora. In Russia it mainly occurred among people who came from the Grodno gubernia, part of whom in the first half of the 19-th century moved to the shtetles of the Minsk gubernia and part moved to Volyn (Zhitomir, Dubno and other towns of this part of Ukraine). In Ukraine with time the name started to sound somewhat differently - Koifman.
Generally it should be noted that there are no many cases among Jews when people have the same name and are not (distant) relatives. Families with older names can consist of up to ten-twenty thousand relatives.

Many Kaufmans became famous in the world of literature, art and cinema. Is it a coincidence? The experience shows that it is not.
Here are but some of them:
Many Kaufmans chose to work in cinema, It is not an exagerration to say that without Kaufmans the modern cinema would be different.
The famous brothers David, Moisei and Boris Kaufman stood at the roots of the world documentary cinema. One of them - David, who took the pseudo name Dziga Vertov created a whole direction of documentary cinema - artistic documentary. His works are studied in all cinema schools of the world until today.
As it is known, in the end of the 19-th - beginning of the 20-th century more than two million Jews moved to America. Among them there are many people having the name Kaufman who made an impact on the American cinema:
George Kaufman was a dramaturgist, scenarist and director.
Lloyd Kaufman is an American director.
Andy Jeffrey Kaufman was a famous comic actor.
Charlie Kaufman is a scenarist and producer.
In 19-20 centuries several painters - Kaufmans became famous - Izador Kaufman in Hungary and Hugo Kaufman in Germany.
In the world of literature there are also well-known Kaufmans. Bel Kaufman is an American writer and a granddaughter of Sholom Aleihem. A very good Russian poet David Samoilov - was born as Kaufman. There is a famous Israeli writer and philosopher Iehuda Kaufman (Even Shmuel). Also there is a famous Russian and later American Jewish publicist - Michael Kaufman.