Pain is a surname. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland records it as a variant of Payne, along with Paine, Payn, Pane, Payen, Payan, Panes, and Pagan. The name Payne is believed to derive from the medieval English personal name Pagan.[1] The Dictionary of American Family Names describes Pain as a variant of the name Paine.[2]
Pain is also an alternative spelling of the Indian surname Pyne.[3]
Notable people with the surname include (birth date order):
- Elizabeth Pain (c. 1652–1704), settler in Boston, Massachusetts
- James Pain (1779–1877), English architect
- Arthur Pain (1841–1920), bishop in Australia
- William Plain (1855–1924), British army officer
- Barry Pain (1864–1928), English journalist, poet and writer
- Edwin Pain (1891–1947), English cricketer
- Nesta Pain (1905–1995), British broadcaster and writer
- Peter Pain (1913–2003), British judge
- Rollo Pain (1921–2005), British army officer
- Edward Pain (1925–2000), Australian rower
- Jean Pain (1928–1981), Swiss inventor
- Denis Pain (1936–2019), New Zealand judge and sports administrator
- Quentin Pain (born 1956), British writer on accounting and entrepreneur
- Richard Pain (born 1956), bishop in Wales
- Susanna Pain (1957-), Australian Anglican priest, spiritual director
- Bedabrata Pain (born 1963), Indian scientist and film director
- Debbie Pain (active 1988–), British conservation biologist
- Jeff Pain (born 1970), Canadian skeleton racer
- François Pain (active 1990s), French film-maker
- Erwan Pain (born 1986), French ice hockey player
- Mélanie Pain (active 2004–), French singer
- Connor Pain (born 1993), Australian soccer player