Perspectives of Jewish Onomastics (original) (raw)

2014, International Institute for Jewish Geneogology

AI-generated Abstract

This paper delves into Jewish onomastics, focusing on the study of names, particularly given names and surnames, while briefly addressing place names. It emphasizes the significance of Jewish toponyms in understanding etymologies of surnames, highlighting how place names can inform the phonetic and historical development of Yiddish. The importance of systematic research in this field is underscored, with implications for Jewish culture, history, linguistics, and genealogy.

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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.

Introductory portion to: Beider, Alexander. 2001. A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation, and Migrations. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu.

2001

These introductory chapters to the dictionary of traditional Ashkenazic given names cover the following topics: (1) Ashkenazic naming traditions (including the use of religious [shemot ha-qodesh] and vernacular [kinnuim] personal names for men, the use of double given names, frequency), (2) inception of names (calques, borrowed from non-Jews or Jewish texts, plain creation), (3) creation of hypocoristic and pet forms (with / without suffixes), (4) phonetic changes related to the development of Yiddish phonology; (5) origins of communities analyzed using onomastic data.

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.

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

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Names of Jews in Medieval Navarre (13th–14th centuries)

in: Ahrens, Wolfgang / Embleton, Sheila / Lapierre, André (eds.), Names in a Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Ethnic World. Proceedings of the 23d International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (August 17-22, 2008, York University, Toronto), CD-ROM, Toronto: York University, 140-157, 2009