The effect of substrate strains upon surface acoustic wave (SAW) velocities were determined for piezoelectric PbTiO3ceramics that were modified by adding Nd2O3, In2O3, and MnO2. SAW velocity variations were measured against uniaxial bending strain in the direction of propagation. It was found that the relationship between fractional SAW velocity change and uniaxial strain reveals strong nonlinearity, which contrasts with the case for single‐crystal substrates. The present ceramics were also found to have an anomalously large SAW velocity strain coefficient (∼10) at a highly strained condition (∼8×10−5).