Surnames of Jewish People in the Land of Israel from the Sixteenth Century to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (original) (raw)

The Notion of ‘Jewish Surnames’

Journal of Jewish Languages, 2018

This article discusses the notion of ‘Jewish surnames,’ considering it to be synonymous to the expression ‘surnames borne by Jews.’ This can be particularly helpful if we want the definition to add real value for the search of etymologies. The article describes most important peculiarities of Jewish surnames, categories of names that are exclusively Jewish, and various cases when a surname is shared by both Jews and non-Jews. It shows that certain alternative definitions of the notion of ‘Jewish surnames’ (such as surnames found in all Jewish communities, surnames used by Jews only, surnames based on specifically Jewish linguistic elements) either have internal inconsistencies or are useless and sometimes misleading for the scientific analysis of the etymologies of these surnames.

History of Jewish Names in Eastern Europe and Surnames in the Russian Empire

Chapters 1, 4, 5 of Beider, Alexander. 2008. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire (revised edition). Bergenfield (2008), NJ: Avotaynu. , 2008

These three chapters cover the historical aspects of names: Chapter 1: History of Jewish Names in Eastern Europe, with sections (a) Names in Hebrew Sources before the End of the 18th Century (b) Names in Slavic Sources before the End of the 18th Century (c) General Aspects of the Surname Adoption by Jews of the Russian Empire (d) Surname Changes in Russia and USSR Chapter 4: Adoption of surnames in various regions (Courland, Lithuania, Belorussia, Ukraine, Bessarabia) Chapter 5: Jewish surnames and Gentile surnames in Eastern Europe, with sections about surnames specific to Jews, shared by Jews and Slavic or German Christians, surnames borrowed by Jews from Christians

Jewish Family Names

Dictionary of American Family Names (ed. Patrick Hanks, Simon Lenarčič, and Peter McClure). Second edition. 5 vols. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pp. CXLI-CXLVIII, 2022

The paper provides an overview of the development of the family names used by Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews. It also includes an overview of the Jewish immigration to the United States and names changes among immigrants.

Surnames of "Portuguese" Jews as a Tool for Analyzing Basic Aspects of Their History

Avotaynu, The Internation Review of Jewish Genealogy, 31, 1 (Spring 2019), pp. 7-12, 2019

As shown in this paper, analysis of surnames used by “Portuguese” (ex-Marrano) Jews allows us to shed some light on the controversial question about what knowledge members of these communities had about their Jewish ancestors who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before the mass conversions at the end of the 15th century. The data provided shows that even four to five generations after the conversions some New Christian descendants still knew the Jewish family names of their ancestors and/or of themselves being Cohanim, Levites, or Israelites. This memory could be either direct, or indirect, i.e., provided by relatives. For both transmission methods, strong family ties among these New Christians were of paramount importance.

History, Adoption, and Regulation of Jewish Surnames in the Russian Empire

Surname DNA Journal, 2014

Analysis of the formation of surnames by the Jewish population of the 19th century Russian Empire. Description of the cultural and legal context of Ashkenazi Jewish surnames in Russia with examples taken from census records. Provides insight to genealogists on the legally mandated creation of different surnames within individual families followed by a period of relative surname stability into the 20th century. Surname derivation from toponyms with the "sky" suffix were most common followed by patronymics with the "vich" suffix and then derivation from occupations or nicknames. Between 1880 and 1924, over two million Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews immigrated to America from the Russian Empire, where repeated pogroms made life untenable. They came from Jewish diaspora communities in the Russian Pale of Settlement (the territory where Jews were permitted to live in the Russian Empire, encompassing modern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova), the vast majority of them entering America through the Port of New York, at Ellis Island. Many of these Jewish immigrants had strange, foreign-sounding surnames, very different from the surnames of their American-born children and grandchildren. How did these immigrants originally obtain their Russian or Eastern European surnames? Where did they get them from, and how long did they have them? When, where, and why were they changed? That is the topic of this review article, and some of the questions that it is intended to address. There has always been a certain mystique associated with Jewish surnames. Part of this mystique is due to the fact that many Ashkenazi Jews, whose ancestors immigrated to America, do not know how or where their surname originated, or even what they mean. They may be vaguely aware that their American surname was changed from a different ancestral surname in the old country, but the origin and history of their ancestral

Names of People: Surnames in Pre-Modern Europe

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS, vol. 2, pp. 791-795, 2013

The paper discusses the Jewish surnames based on Hebrew that were created mainly in Ashkenazic communities of Eastern and Central Europe before mid-19th century. The large group was created in the Russian Empire. A few examples are also provided of Hebrew names used by Sephardic Jews.