Jewish Surnames Explained
Richard Andree's 1881 map of the Jews of Central Europe.
Ashkenazic Jews were among the last
Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as
early as the 17th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived
in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The
process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia
in 1844.
In attempting to build modern
nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they
could be taxed, drafted, and educated (in that order of importance). For
centuries, Jewish communal leaders were responsible for collecting taxes from
the Jewish population on behalf of the government, and in some cases were
responsible for filling draft quotas. Education was traditionally an internal
Jewish affair.
Until this period, Jewish names
generally changed with every generation. For example, if Moses son of Mendel
(Moyshe ben Mendel) married Sarah daughter of Rebecca (Sora bas Rifke), and
they had a boy and named it Samuel (Shmuel), the child would be called Shmuel
ben Moyshe. If they had a girl and named her Feygele, she would be called
Feygele bas Sora.
Jews distrusted the authorities and
resisted the new requirement. Although they were forced to take last names, at
first they were used only for official purposes. Among themselves, they kept
their traditional names. Over time, Jews accepted the new last names, which
were essential as Jews sought to advance within the broader society and as the shtetles
were transformed or Jews left them for big cities.
The easiest way for Jews to assume
an official last name was to adapt the name they already had, making it
permanent. This explains the use of "patronymics" and
"matronymics."
PATRONYMICS (son of ...)
In Yiddish or German,
"son" would be denoted by "son" or "sohn" or
"er." In most Slavic languages, like Polish or Russian, it would be
"wich" or "witz."
For example: The son of Mendel took
the last name Mendelsohn; the son of Abraham became Abramson or Avromovitch;
the son of Menashe became Manishewitz; the son of Itzhak became Itskowitz; the
son of Berl took the name Berliner; the son of Kesl took the name Kessler, etc.
MATRONYMICS (daughter of …)
Reflecting the prominence of Jewish
women in business, some families made last names out of women's first names:
Chaiken — son of Chaikeh; Edelman — husband of Edel; Gittelman — husband of Gitl;
Glick or Gluck — may derive from Glickl, a popular woman's name as in the
famous "Glickl of Hameln," whose memoirs, written around 1690, are an
early example of Yiddish literature.
Gold/Goldman/Gulden may derived from
Golda; Malkov from Malke; Perlman — husband of Perl; Rivken — may derive from
Rivke; Soronsohn—son of Sarah.
PLACE NAMES
The next most common source of
Jewish last names is probably places. Jews used the town or region where they
lived, or where their families came from, as their last name. As a result, the
Germanic origins of most East European Jews is reflected in their names.
For example, Asch is an acronym for
the towns of Aisenshtadt or Altshul or Amshterdam.
Other place-based Jewish names include: Auerbach/Orbach; Bacharach; Berger (generic
for townsman); Berg(man), meaning from a hilly place; Bayer — from Bavaria;
Bamberger; Berliner, Berlinsky — from Berlin; Bloch (foreigner); Brandeis;
Breslau; Brodsky; Brody; Danziger; Deutch/Deutscher — German; Dorf(man),
meaning villager; Eisenberg; Epstein; Florsheim; Frankel — from the Franconia
region of Germany; Frankfurter; Ginsberg; Gordon — from Grodno, Lithuania or
from the Russian word gorodin, for townsman; Greenberg; Halperin—from Helbronn,
Germany; Hammerstein; Heller — from Halle, Germany; Hollander — not from
Holland, but from a town in Lithuania settled by the Dutch; Horowitz, Hurwich,
Gurevitch — from Horovice in Bohemia; Koenigsberg; Krakauer — from Cracow,
Poland; Landau; Lipsky — from Leipzig, Germany; Litwak — from Lithuania; Minsky
— from Minsk, Belarus; Mintz—from Mainz, Germany; Oppenheimer; Ostreicher —
from Austria; Pinsky — from Pinsk, Belarus; Posner — from Posen, Germany;
Prager — from Prague; Rappoport — from Porto, Italy; Rothenberg — from the town
of the red fortress in Germany; Shapiro — from Speyer, Germany; Schlesinger —
from Silesia, Germany; Steinberg; Unger — from Hungary; Vilner — from Vilna,
Poland/Lithuania; Wallach—from Bloch, derived from the Polish word for
foreigner; Warshauer/Warshavsky — from Warsaw; Wiener — from Vienna; Weinberg.
OCCUPATIONAL NAMES
Craftsmen/Workers
Ackerman — plowman; Baker/Boker —
baker; Blecher — tinsmith; Fleisher/Fleishman/Katzoff/Metger — butcher;
Cooperman — coppersmith; Drucker — printer; Einstein — mason; Farber —
painter/dyer; Feinstein — jeweler; Fisher — fisherman; Forman —
driver/teamster; Garber/Gerber — tanner; Glazer/Glass/Sklar — glazier;
Goldstein — goldsmith; Graber — engraver; Kastner — cabinetmaker; Kunstler — artist;
Kramer — storekeeper; Miller — miller; Nagler — nailmaker; Plotnick —
carpenter; Sandler/Shuster — shoemaker; Schmidt/Kovalsky — blacksmith; Shnitzer
— carver; Silverstein — jeweler; Spielman — player (musician?);
Stein/Steiner/Stone — jeweler; Wasserman — water carrier.
Merchants
Garfinkel/Garfunkel — diamond
dealer; Holzman/Holtz/Waldman — timber dealer; Kaufman — merchant; Rokeach —
spice merchant; Salzman — salt merchant; Seid/Seidman—silk merchant; Tabachnik
— snuff seller; Tuchman — cloth merchant; Wachsman — wax dealer;
Wechsler/Halphan — money changer; Wollman — wool merchant; Zucker/Zuckerman —
sugar merchant.
Related to tailoring
Kravitz/Portnoy/Schneider/Snyder —
tailor; Nadelman/Nudelman — also tailor, but from "needle";
Sher/Sherman — also tailor, but from "scissors" or
"shears"; Presser/Pressman — clothing presser;
Futterman/Kirshner/Kushner/Peltz — furrier; Weber — weaver.
Medical
Aptheker — druggist; Feldsher —
surgeon; Bader/Teller — barber.
Related to liquor trade
Bronfman/Brand/Brandler/Brenner —
distiller; Braverman/Meltzer — brewer; Kabakoff/Krieger/Vigoda — tavern keeper;
Geffen — wine merchant; Wine/Weinglass — wine merchant; Weiner — wine maker.
Religious/Communal
Altshul/Althshuler — associated with
the old synagogue in Prague; Cantor/Kazan/Singer/Spivack — cantor or song
leader in shul; Feder/Federman/Schreiber — scribe; Haver — from haver (court
official); Klausner — rabbi for small congregation; Klopman — calls people to
morning prayers by knocking on their window shutters; Lehrer/Malamud/Malmud —
teacher; Rabin — rabbi (Rabinowitz—son of rabbi); London — scholar, from the
Hebrew lamden (misunderstood by immigration inspectors); Reznick —
ritual slaughterer; Richter — judge; Sandek — godfather; Schechter/Schachter/Shuchter
etc. — ritual slaughterer from Hebrew schochet; Shofer/Sofer/Schaeffer —
scribe; Shulman/Skolnick — sexton; Spector — inspector or supervisor of
schools.
PERSONAL TRAITS
Alter/Alterman — old; Dreyfus—three
legged, perhaps referring to someone who walked with a cane; Erlich — honest;
Frum — devout ; Gottleib — God lover, perhaps referring to someone very devout;
Geller/Gelber — yellow, perhaps referring to someone with blond hair;
Gross/Grossman — big; Gruber — coarse or vulgar; Feifer/Pfeifer — whistler;
Fried/Friedman—happy; Hoch/Hochman/Langer/Langerman — tall; Klein/Kleinman —
small; Koenig — king, perhaps someone who was chosen as a “Purim King,” in
reality a poor wretch; Krauss — curly, as in curly hair; Kurtz/Kurtzman —
short; Reich/Reichman — rich; Reisser — giant; Roth/Rothman — red head;
Roth/Rothbard — red beard; Shein/Schoen/Schoenman — pretty, handsome;
Schwartz/Shwartzman/Charney — black hair or dark complexion; Scharf/Scharfman —
sharp, i.e intelligent; Stark — strong, from the Yiddish shtark ;
Springer — lively person, from the Yiddish springen for jump.
INSULTING NAMES
These were sometimes foisted on Jews
who discarded them as soon as possible, but a few may remain:
Billig — cheap; Gans — goose; Indyk
— turkey; Grob — rough/crude; Kalb — cow.
ANIMAL NAMES
It is common among all peoples to
take last names from the animal kingdom. Baer/Berman/Beerman/Berkowitz/Beronson
— bear; Adler — eagle (may derive from reference to an eagle in Psalm 103:5);
Einhorn — unicorn; Falk/Sokol/Sokolovksy — falcon; Fink — finch; Fuchs/Liss —
fox; Gelfand/Helfand — camel (technically means elephant but was used for camel
too); Hecht—pike; Hirschhorn — deer antlers; Karp — carp; Loeb — lion; Ochs—
ox; Strauss — ostrich (or bouquet of flowers); Wachtel — quail.
HEBREW NAMES
Some Jews either held on to or
adopted traditional Jewish names from the Bible and Talmud. The big two are
Cohen (Cohn, Kohn, Kahan, Kahn, Kaplan) and Levi (Levy, Levine, Levinsky,
Levitan, Levenson, Levitt, Lewin, Lewinsky, Lewinson). Others include: Aaron —
Aronson, Aronoff; Asher; Benjamin; David — Davis, Davies; Ephraim — Fishl;
Emanuel — Mendel; Isaac — Isaacs, Isaacson/Eisner; Jacob — Jacobs, Jacobson,
Jacoby; Judah — Idelsohn, Udell,Yudelson; Mayer/Meyer; Menachem — Mann, Mendel;
Reuben — Rubin; Samuel — Samuels, Zangwill; Simon — Schimmel; Solomon — Zalman.
HEBREW ACRONYMS
Names based on Hebrew acronyms
include: Baron — bar aron (son of Aaron); Beck — bene kedoshim
(descendant of martyrs); Getz — gabbai tsedek (righteous synagogue
official); Katz — kohen tsedek (righteous priest); Metz — moreh
tsedek (teacher of righteousness); Sachs, Saks — zera kodesh
shemo (his name descends from martyrs); Segal — se gan levia
(second-rank Levite).
OTHER HEBREW- and YIDDISH-DERIVED
NAMES
Lieb means "lion" in Yiddish. It is the root of many
Ashkenazic last names, including Liebowitz, Lefkowitz, Lebush, and Leon. It is
the Yiddish translation of the Hebrew word for lion — aryeh. The lion
was the symbol of the tribe of Judah.
Hirsch means "deer" or "stag" in Yiddish. It
is the root of many Ashkenazic last names, including Hirschfeld,
Hirschbein/Hershkowitz (son of Hirsch), Hertz/Herzl, Cerf, Hart, and Hartman.
It is the Yiddish translation of the Hebrew word for gazelle: tsvi. The
gazelle was the symbol of the tribe of Naphtali.
Taub means "dove" in Yiddish. It is the root of the
Ashkenazic last name Tauber. The symbol of the dove is associated with the
prophet Jonah.
Wolf is the root of the Ashkenazic last names Wolfson, Wouk, and
Volkovich. The wolf was the symbol of the tribe of Benjamin.
Eckstein — Yiddish for cornerstone, derived from Psalm 118:22.
Good(man) — Yiddish translation of the Hebrew word for
"good": tuviah.
Margolin — Hebrew for "pearl."
INVENTED ‘FANCY SHMANCY’ NAMES
When Jews in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire were required to assume last names, some chose the nicest ones they
could think of and may have been charged a registration fee by the authorities.
According to the YIVO Encyclopedia, "The resulting names often are
associated with nature and beauty. It is very plausible that the choices were
influenced by the general romantic tendencies of German culture at that
time." These names include: Applebaum — apple tree; Birnbaum — pear tree;
Buchsbaum — box tree; Kestenbaum — chestnut tree; Kirschenbaum — cherry tree;
Mandelbaum — almond tree; Nussbaum — nut tree; Tannenbaum — fir tree;
Teitelbaum — palm tree.
Other names, chosen or purchased,
were combinations with these roots: Blumen
(flower), Fein (fine), Gold, Green, Lowen (lion), Rosen (rose), Schoen/Schein
(pretty) — combined with berg (hill or mountain), thal (valley), bloom
(flower), zweig (wreath), blatt (leaf), vald or wald (woods), feld (field).
Miscellaneous other names included
Diamond; Glick/Gluck — luck; Hoffman — hopeful; Fried/Friedman — happiness;
Lieber/Lieberman — lover.
Jewish family names from non-Jewish
languages included: Sender/Saunders — from Alexander;
Kagan — descended from the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking people from Central Asia;
Kelman/Kalman — from the Greek name Kalonymous, the Greek translation of the
Hebrew shem tov (good name), popular among Jews in medieval France and
Italy; Marcus/Marx — from Latin, referring to the pagan god Mars.
Finally, there may have been Jewish
names changed or shortened by immigration inspectors (though this is disputed)
or by immigrants themselves (or their descendants) to sound more American,
which is why "Sean Ferguson" was a Jew.
