Jews have historically used Hebrew patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by either ben- or bat- ("son of" and "daughter of," respectively), and then the father's name. (Bar-, "son of" in Aramaic, is also seen). Permanent family surnames exist today but only gained popularity among Sephardic Jews in Iberia and elsewhere as early as the 10th or 11th century and did not spread widely to the Ashkenazic Jews of Germany or Eastern Europe until the 18th and 19th century, where the adoption of German surnames was imposed in exchange for Jewish emancipation.
Although Ashkenazi Jews now use European or modern-Hebrew surnames for everyday life, the Hebrew patronymic form is still used in Jewish religious and cultural life. It is used in synagogue and in documents in Jewish law such as the ketubah (marriage contract).
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Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry
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 Sephardim this practice was common long before the exile from Spain, and probably became still more common as a result of the example of the conversos, who on adopting Christianity accepted in most cases the family names of their godfathers. Among the Ashkenazim, whose isolation from the mainstream majority population in the lands where they lived was more complete, the use of surnames only started to become common in the eighteenth century in most places.
The use of surnames became common very early among the Arabic-speaking Jews, who naturally carried the custom into the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal). Among Sephardi Jews are found such names as Abeldano, corresponding to Ibn el-Danan; Abencabre, corresponding to Ibn Zabara; Avinbruch, corresponding to Ibn Baruch, Hacen corresponding to Hassan or Hazan; and the like. Biblical names often take curious forms in the Iberian records, Isaac appearing as Acaz, Cohen as Coffen or Coffe, Yom-?ob as Bondia, ?ema? as Crescas or Cresquez.
The ?en family appears to have adopted a translation of the name of their home-village, Gracia, near Barcelona. Indeed, among the Sephardi the tendency to adopt family names from localities is largely developed; hence were derived such names as Espinosa, Gerondi, Cavalleria, De La Torre, del Monte, Lousada, and Villa Real. The name Sasportas deserves special attention, as it is really the Balearic dialectal form of La Porta. The "Asturias" family name was also said to be adopted by Sephardic Jews who had migrated to the northern province of Spain, which is also called Asturias.
Many families, especially among New Christians (Jewish converts to Catholicism) and Crypto-Jews, but not restricted to them, took Spanish and Portuguese family names, sometimes using translations (such as Vidal/de Vidas for Hayyim, Lobos for Zev, de Paz for Shalom, and de la Cruz or Espírito Santo for Ruah); phonetic similarities according to a kinnui-like system, sometimes choosing between already existing ones (such as Pizarro/Pissarro, Mendes, Fonseca, Calle or Rodrígues); even given names (for example, de Jesus or de Miguel). Julio Caro Baroja, supporting José Leite de Vasconcelos' thesis in his "Anthroponymy Portuguesa, 4" argues, for example, that the surnames related to "calle" (English: "street"), that would be the equivalent in something like a ghetto, are Jewish origin. This is the case of Alonso Calle, treasurer on the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, who was one of the settlers of Sephardic origin who composed the crew.
Ashkenazic Jewry
Jews have historically used Hebrew patronymic names. Permanent family surnames started appearing among Sephardic Jews in Iberia and elsewhere as early as the 10th or 11th century but did not spread widely to the Ashkenazic Jews of Germany or Eastern Europe until the Middle Ages. Some of the settled Jews in communities in large cities, such as Prague or Frankfurt am Main, began to adopt various surnames. The names of bread-winning women, such as Sirkes or Rivkes, were adopted by some households while others came from the man's trade such as Metzger (butcher) or Becker (baker) and a few derived from personal attributes, such as Jaffe (beautiful), or special events in the family history. The majority of Middle Age surname adoption came from place names, 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.
A lot of surnames in Holland derived from the German versions. For example Waal derived from Wahl and Voorzanger (Chazan) derived from Voorsanger.
The process of assigning permanent surnames to Jewish families (most of which are still used to this day) began in Austria. On 23 July 1787, five years after the Edict of Tolerance, the Austrian emperor Joseph II issued a decree called Das Patent über die Judennamen which compelled the Jews to adopt German surnames. 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.
Napoleon also, in a decree of July 20, 1808, insisted upon the Jews adopting fixed names His decree covered all lands west of the Rhine; and many other parts of Germany required surname-adoption within a few years. Oldenburg was the last principality to complete the process, in 1852.
At the end of the 18th century after the Partition of Poland and later after the Congress of Vienna the Russian Empire acquired a large number of Jews who did not use surnames. They, too, were required to adopt surnames during the 19th century.
Medieval France and Great Britain
In medieval France the use of Biblical names appears to have been more extended, judging by the elaborate lists at the end of Gross's "Gallia Judaica." True surnames occurred, especially in the south, like Farissol, Bonet, Barron, Lafitte; but as a rule local distinctions were popular, as Samson of Sens, etc.
The early Jews of England, who spoke French throughout their stay, also used Biblical names; the most popular name, in the twelfth century at least, being Isaac, next to which came Joseph. On both sides of the British Channel there was a tendency to translate Biblical names into French, as Deulesalt for Isaiah, Serfdeu for Obadiah, Deudone for Elhanan, but the ordinary popular names were adopted also, as Beleasez, Fleurdelis, and Muriel for Jewish women, or Amiot, Bonevie, Bonenfaund, Bonfil, among men. Deulacres and Crescas both occur (probably corresponding to Solomon or Gedaliah).
In Israel
Many immigrants to modern Israel change their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of galuti (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 phonetic similarity with their original family name: Golda Meyersohn became Golda Meir. Another famous person who used a false patronymic was the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, whose original family name was Grün but adopted the name "Ben-Gurion" ("son of the lion cub"), not "Ben-Avigdor" (his father's name).
In Iran
Most of the Jews in Iran had no permanent surnames before Reza Shah. After surnames became mandatory many Persian Jews employed job related names as their surnames. Many Jews worked in non-Muslim professions like goldsmith, silversmith, dealers of coins, money changing and seller of spirits. Others engaged in Medicine, silk manufacturing and weaving, locksmith, tailors, shoe makers, merchants of second hand items. Many other Jews were engaged in trading of Jewelry, opium and wine manufacturing, musicians, dancers, scavengers, pedlars and other professions that were generally deemed non-respectful.
Many Jews adopted these professions as their surnames such as Abrishami (Silk maker), Almasi (Diamond maker), Boloorian (Crystal maker), Dehghan (Farmer), Fallah (Farmer), Zarrinkoob, Javaherian, Gohari (Gold seller), Noghrehforosh (Silversmith), Mesforosh (Coppersmith), Sarraf, Sarraf Nezhad, Banki (Money changer) , Zargar, Zarshenas (goldsmith). Also in Iran Jews employed son of or daughter of but used Persian suffix such as -Pour (son of), -Zadeh (Born of), -Nezhad (from the race of) and -ian (from the group of). Some example 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), etc. Levite and Kohanim surnames became Lavi, Lavaee, Lavi Zadeh, Lavaeeian, Kohan, Kohan pour (Son of a Kohen), etc.
Many Jews employed the Turkish suffix -Chi (meaning merchant of) to denote their profession. Examples of such include Abrishamchi (Merchant of silk), Saatchi (Watch seller), Talachi (Gold seller), Noghrechi (Silver seller), Arakchi (merchant of alcoholic drinks), Meschi (Merchant of copper), Aeenechi (Merchant of mirrors), etc.
Toponyms (names derived from locations)
Many modern Jewish surnames are derived from place names. There are general names like Deutsch, Frank, Franco, Frankel, and more localized ones from almost every European country.
The Netherlands has contributed Leuwarden, Neumegen, Limburg, van Thal, and various other vans, as van Ryn (Rhine), etc.
Germany has contributed the largest number. Some refer to well-known cities as Speyer (in the middle ages Spira) (hence Shapira or Shapiro), Posen (hence Posner and Posener, as well as Pozner), Berlin (hence Berliner and Berlinsky), Bingen, Cassel (cf. David Cassel), Treves (whence, according to some authorities, originated the very popular Alsatian name of Dreyfus), Dresden, Fulda (hence Foulde), and Oppenheim; others, to less familiar towns, like Auerbach, Bischoffsheim, Utting am Ammersee (hence Utting), Hildesheim (Hildesheimer), Landshuth, Sulzberg.
House signs such as those in the Frankfurter Judengasse gave rise to the names of some of the best known of Jewish families: Rothschild ("red shield"), Schwarzschild ("black shield"), Adler ("eagle"), Ganz or Gans ("goose"), Strauß ("ostrich"), and Ochs ("ox").
Some names may seem to be derived artificially, but can also refer to towns, e.g., Birnbaum (translated into "Peartree"), Rosenberg, Kornberg, Sommerfeld, Grünberg (hence Greenberg), Goldberg, and Rubenstein.
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 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. Sephardic surnames, as already mentioned, are almost invariably local, as Almanzi, Castro, Carvajal, Silva, Leon, Levai, Navarro, Somogyi, Robles, Sevilla (Spanish), and Almeida, Carvallo, Lisbona, Miranda, Paiva, Porto, Pieba and Verdugo (Portuguese). Many Italian names are also of this class, as Alatino, Genovese (from Genoa), Meldola, Montefiore, Mortara, Pisa, Rizzolo, Romanelli (with its variants Romanin, Romain, Romayne, and Romanel), Vitalis (from Jaim or Chaim and its variants Vidal, Vidale and Vidas); Verdugo and its variants Berdugo, Bardogo, Paradiso an anagram for the word Diaspora (dispersion). Even in the East there are names of these last two classes, Behar (from Bejar), Barron (from BarOn), Galante, Veneziani, though there are a few Arabic names like Alfandari and ?aggis; Greek, as Galipapa and Pappo; and a few Turkish, as Jamila, Gungur, Bilbil, and Sabad.
Going still farther east, the curious custom which prevails among the Bene Israel may be mentioned of changing Biblical names to similar Hindu names with the addition of -jee, thus Benjamin into Benmajee, Abraham into Abrajee, David into Dawoodjee, Jacob into Akkoobjee. Before dismissing the local names, the names Altschul or Altschuler, derived from the Altschul ("old school/synagogue") of Prague, should be mentioned.
Official names and nicknames
Turning to the next great source from which have been derived the Jewish and German-Jewish surnames used in ordinary nomenclature--trades and occupations--such names as Kaufmann and Marchant ("merchant") become prominent. Others of the same kind are: Banks (Surname); Brauer, Breyer, and Brower ("brewer"); Spielmann ("player"); Gerber (tanner); Steinschneider ("stonecutter"); Graveur ("engraver"); Shoemark or Schumacher ("shoemaker"); Schuster ("cobbler"); Schneider, Schneiders, and Snyders ("tailor"; in Hebrew ????, Chait/Khait (and at times Hyatt)); Wechsler ("money-changer"). Related (and likewise generically German) are names derived metonymically for a common object or tool of a profession: e.g., Hammer for a blacksmith, Feder ("quill") for a scribe, Lein ("linen") for a dealer in cloth, ...
But there are others that are more distinctively Jewish: Parnass, Gabbay, Singer, Cantor, Voorsanger, Chazan, Cantarini, from the synagogue officials who were so called; Shochet, Schaechter, Schechter, from the ritual slaughterer (also Schub or Shub: Hebrew acronym for 'shochet u-bodek'/ritual slaughterer and kosher meat inspector); Shadkun, a marriage-broker; Rabe, Rabinowitz, Rabinovich, Rabinowicz, and Rabbinovitz, rabbis; Benmohel (one variant of which is Mahler), son of one who performed circumcision, the sacred rite of Abraham. A number of Arabic names are of similar origin: Al-Fakhkhar, a potter; Mocatta, a mason or possibly a soldier (Al-Mu?atil).
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