Jewish surname
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Jewish surnames are family names used by Jews and those of Jewish origin. Jewish surnames are thought to be of comparatively recent origin;[1]: 190 the first known Jewish family names date to the Middle Ages, in the 10th and 11th centuries.[2]
Jews have some of the largest varieties of surnames among any ethnic group, owing to the geographically diverse Jewish diaspora, as well as cultural assimilation and the recent trend toward Hebraization of surnames. Some traditional surnames relate to Jewish history or roles within the religion, such as Cohen ("priest"), Levi, Shulman ("synagogue-man"), Sofer ("scribe"), or Kantor ("cantor"), while many others relate to a secular occupation or place names. The majority of Jewish surnames used today developed in the past three hundred years.[3][4]
History
Historically, Jews used
Permanent family surnames exist today but only gained popularity among
Surnames were derived from a variety of sources, such as the personal names of ancestors, place names, and occupations. In the 18th century, a custom developed amongst the Eastern European Jews of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires where surnames began being passed from mother to son as opposed from father to son, but the trend seems to have died out by the early 20th century.
An exception was members of the Cohanim (priestly caste) and Levites (descendants of Levi) who performed certain religious duties, who had always appended the surnames Cohen and Levi respectively (modern spelling in English may vary), which were usually preceded by ha- meaning "the" in Hebrew. These names are seen in many various forms today, all coming from this root. For example, the name Levine in English-speaking countries, the name Löw in Germanic countries and the names Levi, Lévai, or Lévay in Hungary, Europe, or America. Although Ashkenazi Jews now use European or modern-Hebrew surnames for everyday life, the Hebrew patronymic form (ben or bas/bat with the father's name) is still used in Jewish religious and cultural life. It is used in the synagogue and in documents in Jewish law, such as the ketubah (marriage contract).
Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish Communities
Surnames were not unknown among the Jews of the Middle Ages, and as Jews began to mingle more with their fellow citizens, the practice of using or adopting civic surnames in addition to the "sacred" name, used only in religious connections, grew commensurately. Among the
On the other hand, the use of surnames became common very early among the Arabic-speaking Jews, who carried the custom into the
Arias, a patronymic surname, became common throughout the Iberian peninsula. Among the Jews of Spain and Portugal, it had the hidden meaning "the lion of Israel is on high." A well-known Arias was the humanist and Hebraist Benito Arias Montano.
Sephardic Jews who settled in Wallachia, Romania, coming from Trani, Italy, in the 1700s began to adopt Mitrani as their surname with a reference to their city.[6]
The Ḥen family appears to have adopted a translation of the name of their home village, Gracia, near
Many families, especially among
Some Sephardic or Hidden/Undeclared Jews for fear of persecution or worse felt compelled to anglicize their names (For example, the original, Italianate Principe thus became Prins in early Amsterdam, and Prince in England or early America later on). Anglicized Sephardic families were also known to have intermixed with similar Christian surname communities and family groupings, often later converting.
The Curiel family is part of these New Christian families that emerge around the time due to persecution. Members adopted the Portuguese last name of Nunes da Costa and the Curiel family were ennobled by João IV of Portugal June 14, 1641.[8][9]
Ashkenazi Jewish Communities
Surnames derived from the name of the
Other surnames came from the man's trade such as Metzger (butcher) or Becker (baker), and a few derived from personal attributes, such as Joffe (beautiful), or special events in the family history. The majority of Middle Age surname adoption came from place names (for example Shapiro, from Shpira, Speyer, a Rhenanian city known for its famous Jewish community in the 11th century), often a town name, typically the birthplace of the founder of a rabbinical or other dynasty. These names would permutate to various forms as families moved, such as the original Welsch becoming Wallach, Wlock, or Block. Since these surnames did not have the official status that modern ones do, often the old surname would be dropped and a new one adopted after the family moved their household.[10]
Many surnames in the Netherlands derived from the German versions. For example, Waal derived from Wahl and Voorzanger (Chazan) derived from Vorsänger.
The process of assigning permanent surnames to Jewish families (most of which are still used to this day) began in Austria. On July 23, 1787, five years after the Edict of Tolerance, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II issued a decree called Das Patent über die Judennamen which compelled the Jews to adopt German surnames.[11][12][13] Prussia did so soon after, beginning with Silesia: the city of Breslau in 1790, the Breslau administrative region in 1791, the Liegnitz region in 1794. In 1812, when Napoleon had occupied much of Prussia, surname adoption was mandated for the unoccupied parts; and Jews in the rest of Prussia adopted surnames in 1845.[10][14]
Napoleon also, in a decree of July 20, 1808, insisted upon the Jews adopting fixed names.[15] His decree covered all lands west of the Rhine; and many other parts of Germany required surname-adoption within a few years. The city of Hamburg was the last German state to complete the process, in 1849.[16]
At the end of the 18th century after the
Medieval France
In
Israel
Many immigrants to modern Israel change their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of exiled life still surviving in family names from other languages. This phenomenon is especially common among Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to Israel, because most of their surnames were taken recently, and many were imposed by authorities in Europe as a replacement for the traditional Hebrew patronymic form.
A popular form to create a new family name using Jewish patronymics sometimes related to poetic Zionist themes, such as ben Ami ("son of my people"), or ben Artzi ("son of my country"), and sometimes related to the Israeli landscape, such as bar Ilan ("son of the trees"). Others have created Hebrew names based on
Iran
Most of the
Many Jews adopted these professions as their surnames, such as Abrishami (silk maker), Almasi (diamond maker), Boloorian (crystal maker), Dehghan (wealthy farmer), Fallah (farmer), Zarrinkoob, Javaherian, Gohari (gold seller), Noghrehforosh (silversmith), Mesforosh (coppersmith), Sarraf, Sarrafan, Sarraf Nezhad, Banki (money changer), Zargar, Zarshenas (goldsmith), Hakakian or Hakkakian (connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade) for example Roya Hakakian. Jews in Iran also employed the son of or daughter of patronymics, using Persian suffixes such as -pour (son of), -zadeh (born of), -nezhad (from the race of) and -ian (from the group of). Some examples of these names include Davoud pour (son of David), Davoud nezhad (from the seed of David), Davoud zadeh (born of David), Rabbi pour (son of a rabbi), Rabbi zadeh (born of a rabbi), Yaghoub pour (son of Jacob) and Jafar nezhad (from the race of Japhet).
Many Persian last names consisted of three parts in order to distinguish from other families with similar last names. Some Persian Jewish families that had similar surnames to their Muslim neighbors added a second surname at the end of their last names. As an example Jafar nezhad Levian (From the race of Japhet and from the Tribe of Levite). The purpose of Levian at the end is to distinguish from Muslim Jafar nezhad (From the race of Japhet).
Many Jews employed the Turkish suffix -chi (meaning "merchant of") to denote their profession. Examples of such include Abrishamchi (silk merchant), Saatchi (watch seller), Talachi (gold seller), Noghrechi (silver seller), Arakchi (merchant of alcoholic drinks), Meschi (copper merchant), Aeenechi (merchant of mirrors), etc.[19]
Toponyms
Many modern Jewish surnames are
The Netherlands has contributed
Germany has contributed the largest number. Some refer to well-known cities as
.The English Crawcour (cf. Siegfried Kracauer) comes from Cracow, while van Praag(h) is the name of a Prague family that settled in the Netherlands before going over to England. The name Gordon may in some cases be derived from the Russian Grodno[citation needed] but is also said to have been adopted by Jews in the Russian Empire in honor of Lord George Gordon (1751–1793), a Scottish nobleman who converted to Judaism in 1787 in Birmingham.
From Poland have come names such as Polano, Pollock, Polack, Polak, Pollak, Poole, Pool, and Polk. The names Altschul or Altschuler are derived from the Altschul ("old school/synagogue") of Prague.
Sephardic surnames, as already mentioned, are almost invariably local, as
Even in the East there are names of these last two classes,
Occupational names and nicknames
Another frequent source for Jewish and German-Jewish surnames is the names of trades and occupations; such names as
There are other occupational names that are more distinctively related to Jewish culture and religious roles: Dayan (Jewish religious judge in a Beth din); Parnass, Derus, Gabbay, Singer,
See also
- Family name etymology
- German family name etymology
- Hebrew name
- Jewish Encyclopediaarticles
- Jewish name
- List of Jewish nobility
- Polish surnames
Citations
- ^ Schreiber 2003, p. 190: "Jewish family names are of recent origin. Until 1800, the father's name would often be the family name; for example, Aaron ben (son of) Samuel was known as Aaron Samuel. In the early Middle Ages, Cohen, Levi, and their Hebrew abbreviations Katz (from the initials of Kohen Zedek, Priest of Justice) and Segal (from S'gan Levi, Levitical Head) are mentioned."
- ^ Weiss 2002, p. 15: "The first Jewish family names appeared in the 10th and 11th centuries as surnames for Jews of North Africa, Spain, France and Italy. At the beginning, surnames were not relevant. They were only used for outstanding individuals, not for families. Such family names were set up for educated people, scholars, poets and other notable citizens. Only in special cases they became true family names. In fact the existence of a family name gives a family group its credits, therefore outstanding families tried to demonstrate their prominence, because of a long-established family name. However, Jews in Central and Eastern Europe survived until the 13th century with no significant family names, except again for outstanding individuals. At the turn of the 19th century (Joseph II) Jews had to have family names in the following countries: Austria, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Prussia, Russia, and Ukraine. In 1787, the government of Ukraine required Jews living within its borders to assume "German-sounding" surnames so they could be distinguished from so-called "native Ukrainians". Ten years later in 1797, Jews of Lithuania were required to do the same. In Russia, Jews assumed surnames more slowly after the law requiring them to do so took effect in 1804 (with the integrated part of Poland). By the end of the 19th century, all European Jews had surnames."
- ^ "Еврейские фамилии: история происхождения и разнообразие (Jewish Surnames: History of Origin and Diversity)". U-Jew! (in Russian). 16. 2016.
История большинства еврейских фамилий укладывается в три столетия ... связанные с религией: Шульман – служитель в синагоге; Рабинович – раввин; Сойфер – писатель священных текстов. Особой популярностью пользовались два титула: Коэн – священный жрец и Леви – помощник священника.
- ^ Singer 1901–1906: "The use of surnames thus became common among the Arabic-speaking Jews, who naturally carried the custom into Spain... As has been seen, surnames were not unknown among the Jews of the Middle Ages, and as Jews began to mingle more with their fellow citizens the practice of using or adopting civic surnames in addition to the "sacred" name, used only in religious connections, grew commensurately. Of course, among the Sephardim, this practice was common almost from the time of the exile from Spain, and probably became still more common as a result of the example of the Maranos, who on adopting Christianity accepted in most cases the family names of their godfathers. Among the Ashkenazim, whose isolation from their fellow citizens was more complete, the use of surnames became at all general only in the eighteenth century."
- ^ "Sephardim.com - Sephardic surnames". Sephardim.com. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
- ^ Mihai Alexandrescu (2017). "David Mitrany during the First World War. Some ambiguities in his biography". Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Historia. 62 (2): 50.
- ^ Loeb. R. E. J. iv. 73.
- ^ "Jacob Curiel, alias for Duarte Nunes da Costa". geni_family_tree. September 26, 1587. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
- ISBN 9781852850227.
- ^ ISBN 9781461627203. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- ^ Original text of the decree issued by Joseph the second on July 23, 1787
- ISBN 978-1-148-91162-5.
- ^ "iCloud". Web.me.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Lars Menk: A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2005. pp. 3–4
- ^ "L'Univers Israélite", lvii. 472
- ^ Between Foreigners and Shi‘is: Nineteenth-Century Iran and its Jewish Minority (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), page 155.
- ^ Between Foreigners and Shi‘is: Nineteenth-Century Iran and its Jewish Minority (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), page 201.
- ISBN 978-0827607514
- ^ I Kracauer, Die Geschichte der Judengasse in Frankfurt. Frankfurt, 1909. pp 453ff.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-934309-24-7.
- ^ Franco, Moïse (1897). Essai sur l'histoire des Israélites de l'empire Ottoman, depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours (in French). Paris: A. Durlacher. pp. 284–285. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- Jew. Encyc.iv. 144.
General bibliography
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Names (Personal)". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- ISBN 978-1-887563-77-2.
- Weiss, Nelly (2002). The origin of Jewish family names: morphology and history. P. Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-5644-7.
- Eva Horowitz and ISBN 978-0-88125-297-2, 882 pages
- What’s in a Name? 25 Jewish Stories. Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Biel 2022. ISBN 978-3-907262-34-4.
German Jewish surnames
- Lars Menk: A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2005.
- Franz D. Lucas and Margret Heitmann: Stadt des Glaubens. Olms, 1992, ISBN 978-3-487-09495-3.
- A. Heppner: "Die Stamm-Numeranten". In: Breslauer Juedisches Gemeindeblatt, Amtliches Blatt der Synagogengemeinde zu Breslau. Breslau 1928.
- Leopold Zunz: Namen der Juden: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung. Leipzig 1837.
- Johann Jakob Schudt: Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten. Vorstellende, was sich Curieuses ... mit denen ... Juden zugetragen. Frankfurt & Leipzig, 1714–18.
Other regions
- ISBN 1-886223-19-X.
- Alexander Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 1996, ISBN 0-9626373-9-4.
- (first edition) Alexander Beider: Jewish Surnames in Prague (15th–18th Centuries). Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 1994, ISBN 978-0-9626373-5-3.
- (first edition) Alexander Beider: Jewish Surnames in Prague (15th–18th Centuries). Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 1994,
- Alexander Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire: Revised Edition, two volumes. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2008, ISBN 1886223386, 10,008 pages
- First edition: 1993, ISBN 0-9626373-3-5.
- First edition: 1993,
External links
- "Names and Naming" by Alexander Beider, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe