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 (Sara bat rivka), 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 orAmshterdam.
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 — goose; 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; Kirshenbaum — 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 were Jewish names changed or shortened by immigration
inspectors or by immigrants themselves (or their descendants) to sound
more American, which is why "Sean Ferguson" was a Jew.
Let us close with a ditty:
And this is good old Boston;
The home of the bean and the cod.
Where the Lowells speak only to the Cabots;
And the Cabots speak Yiddish, by God!
The home of the bean and the cod.
Where the Lowells speak only to the Cabots;
And the Cabots speak Yiddish, by God!
A version of this post originally appeared on Jewish Currents.
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