The Memi De-Shalit Database of Jewish Family Names, housed at ANU — Museum of the Jewish People, contains several tens of thousands of hereditary family names. The entries have been reviewed by our academic committee, which specified, as far as possible, the type of each name, its etymology and spelling variants, as well as its geographical distribution and famous bearers. Oral family traditions were sometimes added. Very often, several plausible explanations exist for a single family name. We have endeavored to reduce, or even avoid, the speculation and fanciful explanations that appeared in earlier editions of this file. When the committee was uncertain of an etymology, it qualified the explanation as "probable" or "possible."
Adopting a family name or surname was a way of identifying a person and a family unit within a social framework. With a few exceptions, hereditary Jewish family names are a relatively late historical phenomenon. Most Sephardic names were chosen after the Expulsion of 1492, as a means of preserving communal identity, while most Ashkenazic names (Eastern Europe and Germany) were adopted between the years 1787 and 1830, as part of government policies aimed at registering their Jewish subjects. Growing urbanization and the multiplication of people bearing the same first name were another factor explaining the need for family names.
In the nineteenth century, with the rise of nationalism in European countries and the mass migrations of Eastern European Jews, the choice of family names underwent changes. In mid-nineteenth-century Hungary, Jews could transform their names into Hungarian forms common among the non-Jewish population. With the influx of Jews to Western Europe, and particularly to North America, one observes the appearance of corresponding English and French forms. Some immigrants who came to Israel from Kurdistan, Yemen, and India did not possess hereditary family names before their aliyah. During the twentieth century, a tendency developed in Israel: creating Hebrew forms of traditional family names, as an expression of identification with the Zionist revival of the Jewish people. In the 1950s especially, this tendency was officially encouraged for those holding government and military positions, as well as for athletes and other representatives of the new State of Israel.
Family names can be divided into different groups (there may sometimes be more than one explanation for a single name). They can be classified according to the following types.
Patronymic (derived from the masculine first name of an ancestor)
Masculine first names are for the most part Hebrew names, biblical or post-biblical. There are also some names of Greek and Aramaic origin. The next group of patronymics is composed of vernacular or secular names, called in Hebrew kinnuim and in Yiddish rufnemen. These names could be the Yiddish equivalents or diminutives of the Hebrew name, or derived from a European language. In all cases, these too are patronymics that became sources of family names. A patronymic rests essentially on the use of the first name of a father or grandfather as a hereditary family name. Such forms exist in many languages, for example the name Johnson (John's son), MacArthur, or Ibn Saud.
Taking the biblical first name Abraham as an example (Stahl, Origin, p. 179 ff.), the family name may be the base form of the first name Abraham, or that name with a prefix or suffix indicating "son of" or "belonging to": Abrahams, Abrams, Abramov, Abramoff, Abramsky, Abramovitch, Abramesku, Abrahms/zon, Abrampur, Abramzada, Barhumi, Barami, Ben Avraham, Avrahami. Conversely, a patronymic may rest on an abbreviated diminutive or kinnui: Jacob > Yankel or > Koppel, which respectively produce the names Yanko, Yankels, Yankelevitch or Koppels, Koppelmann, Cooperman, Koppelovitch, Kopf, Kauffman. In Eastern Europe, many Hebrew first names had corresponding Yiddish vernacular forms or kinnuim, which became the basis of patronymic family names: thus Yehudah, whom Jacob compared to a lion (Gen 49:9), produced the Yiddish name Leib ("lion"), giving rise to names such as Leibovitch, Leibeles, Laybl, Leibinson. Sometimes the original Hebrew name was translated before becoming a family name: Zemah became Cerescas in Spain; Yom Tov became Bondi in Italy.
Metronymic (derived from the feminine first name of an ancestress)
A matronymic or metronymic corresponds to the use of the first name of a mother or grandmother as a hereditary family name. It is generally the base first name to which is added a suffix indicating the relationship or belonging: Soros, Edels, Richles, Zipres; or else the ending kin as in Sorotskin, Rivkin, Laikin, Haikin, Mirkin, Zipkin; the diminutive in as in Rivlin, Beilin; still other forms such as Shprinzak (from Shprinze), or those ending in man(n) (indicating the husband of a woman named X) Esterman, Perlman.
Lineage (priestly, levitical, convert)
Foremost among lineage names are those associated with the traditional Israelite priesthood, the kohanim, descendants of Aaron, the first High Priest and elder brother of Moses. Although their ritual functions ceased with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, many priestly families retained their lineage ties and were assigned ceremonial functions in the synagogue, such as being called first to the Torah or redeeming the firstborn (pidyon haben). Recent DNA studies indicate that there are traceable lines of male descent over more than 3,000 years. Family names were one of the means of identifying this group: Cohen, Kogan, Kahane, Kahaneman; the Polish Caplan; and the acronym Katz for kohen zedeq, that is, "authentic priest"; compare also Maze, explained as the acronym of Mizera Aharon Hakohen — "of the seed of Aaron the Priest."
Likewise, the Levites, who assisted the priests in the ancient Temples of Jerusalem, either through song and instrumental accompaniment or by serving as gatekeepers, are represented by a variety of names based on the most common form, Levy: Levine, Levitt, Levitas. The name Segal, borne by many Levites, is explained as the acronym of segan lekehunah, "second to the priest." There are certain famous levitical families, such as the Horowitz (Hurwitz, Gurowitz), descendants of Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (16th-17th centuries), known by his pen name Shelah (Shenei Luhot Habrit). A word of caution, particularly for Ashkenazic Jews bearing these prestigious names: unless there is documentary proof or, above all, a family tradition, many people named Cohen or Levy, as well as their derivatives, do not belong to this paternal lineage. In some countries, marriages were not always recorded in the civil registry; children born of these unions then received the maternal family name.
Geographical name or toponym (town, city, region, or country), sometimes called a name of habitation
A high percentage of Jewish family names is based on place names (toponyms). They reflect the wanderings of our people. The names may refer to localities such as towns (Galinsky < Kalin; Kanevsky < Kanev) from which the family came before migrating to the urban centers where it adopted its name. The names may reflect migratory patterns (sometimes due to persecutions and expulsions) throughout the Jewish world, from cities (Yerushalmi, Hamburger, Braunschweiger, Toledano, Sanani, Sharabi, Yazdi), from provinces (Walach, Bloch), from countries (Deutsch, Nemetz, Hollander, Pollack, Portugali, Sarfati, Franco) or from larger cultural regions (`Ajami, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Shami, Turkel). Compare Stahl, Origins, p. 185, for a detailed list of Sephardic names derived from towns and cities of Iberia. Laredo records in Morocco 350 family names recalling places in Spain and Portugal. A note of caution: names based on place names do not always testify to a direct origin from that place; they may indicate all kinds of indirect relationships between the bearer of the name and the place — distant origin of the family, temporary residence, commerce, kinship.
Occupation (as well as raw material, finished product, or tools associated with that occupation)
Many family names are based on the occupation of the first bearer of the name in the family. These names reflect the economic activities of Jews in their respective communities. Interestingly, many of these professions were the same in different diasporas, for example: baker (Becker, Habaaz), builder (Bauman, `Amar), glazier (Glazer, Glassman, Sklarsky), tailor (Hayyat, Schneider, Schneidman, Kravitz), money-changer (Halfan, Wexler), miller (Milman, Melnik), carpenter (Najaar, Tishcler, Zimmerman, Stoler, Plotnick), blacksmith (Haddad, Shloser, Blechman, Koval), soap-maker (Zeifer, Tsaban, Midler), merchant (Tajjar, Hendler), trader (Kremer, Wazaan, Kupiyetz), shoemaker (Shuster, Shumacher, Ciubotaru), dyer (Sebag, Farbiarz), painter (Dahan, Farber, Mahler), goldsmith/silversmith (Sayag, Goldschmidt, Zlotnick, Argentero), physician (Rofe, Tabib, Hakim, Doctor, Arzt). The names may be in Hebrew, in Yiddish, or in one of the other languages spoken by Jews and understood by their non-Jewish neighbors. Not only the profession or occupation is recorded, but also the material used by the artisan, even the tools employed and the distribution of the finished product. For example, the production and trade of textiles, very widespread, provided many names: Chayat, Schneider, Portnoy, Kravitz; the tools of the trade: Nudel, Needleman, Fudem (thread), Fingerhut (thimble), Scherman (cutter); the specialties: Hefter (one who fixes, attaches elements to garments), Perlsticker and Goldsticker (those who embroidered with pearl and gold appliqués), Talisman (one who makes talitot), and Damsky/Demsky (tailor or merchant for women).
Artificial (or ornamental) name, that is, an invented name, often composed of two roots
These family names are fundamentally an Ashkenazic phenomenon, created artificially by local authorities and by individuals in an effort to provide everyone with a family name. Stahl (Origin, pp. 175-176) identified more than thirty base Yiddish words used either in isolation (Grin) or in combination (Grinberg) to create most of these Jewish-sounding names. These terms may be divided into the following groups: colors — roit, roth (red), grin, gruen (green), weiss (white), schwartz (black), gelb, gel (yellow), blau, blaub (blue); nature — bach (brook), berg (mountain), stein (stone), stern (star), thal, tal (valley, vale), wasser (water); metals and precious stones — gold (gold), zilber (silver), kupfer, cooper (copper), eisen (iron), diamante (diamond), rubin (ruby), perl (pearl); plants — boim, baum (tree), wald (forest), blatt (leaf), blum, bloom, blit (flower), roiz, ros, roz (rose); materials — holtz (wood), gluz, glas (glass), wein (wine); physical traits — shein, shen (beautiful), lang (tall, long), grois, gross (big, important), klein (small) + mann (man).
Jewish religious value or concept
This is a relatively small group, whose names are in Hebrew and reflect values dear to Jews. Some of these names began as first names and may have developed into patronymics or matronymics: Rahamim, Nissim, Teshuvah, Nehamah, Zion.
Jewish communal officials
This category introduces us to the leaders and officials of the Jewish community, represented by a rich collection of family names: rabbi (Rabin, Rabinowitz, Rabiner, Rabi, Hacham, Lamdan); honorific titles, usually in acronym form (Bachar — Ben Chvod Rav; Behrab — Ben HaRav; Shalita — She-yihyeh Leorekh Yamin Tovim Amen); cantor (Chazan, Zinger, Schulzinger, Cantor, Meshoyrer, Soloway, Soloveitchik); teacher (Melamed, Lehrer, Mualem, Morenu, Mor, Mula; Darshan, Maggid, Be[he]lfer); ritual slaughterers (Shohet, Schecter, Shub, Treiber, Menaker); scholar (Zehnwirt, Talmud, Mishnayos); scribes (Sofer, Schreiber, Sass — acronym of sofer stam, scribe of religious texts: sefer torah, tefilin, and mezuzot); diligent participants in communal prayer (Shulman, Tsenter — the tenth person of the minyan, Tillimzoger — a reciter of Psalms, Schatz — Sheliah tsibor, Kaddishman); administrator (Nagid, Gabbai, Shames, Shkolnik, Parnas); and still others: Dayyan, Tokayer (one who sounds the shofar), Somech (who assists the cantor), Wekker (who wakes people for prayer), Shulklopper (who knocks on the synagogue door or on its bench).
Character trait
This form of family names, like the following traits, tells us about the first bearer of the name as an individual. For example, names designating a good person: Gutman, Almalih, Almaleh, Bueno; someone courteous: Feinerman, Galanti; honorable: Yaqar, Toeier, Karido, Caro; gentle: Matuka, Halu, Zuessman; holy: Heilig, Gottesman.
Physical trait
These names reflect physical characteristics: hair or complexion color (Negrin, Amarillo; see also the artificial color names above); size — Lang, Gross, Tawil, Klein, Kurtz, Katan, Malik; beauty — Jaffe, Naeh, Hassan, Jamili, Shein, Ermosa; bodily or facial traits, or infirmities — Atrash (deaf), Blinder, Krumbein.
Nature (plants and animals)
Plant names are very often ornamental names, for example tree names: Birenbaum, Kestenbaum, Kirchenbaum, Tannenbaum. Animal names very often derive from vernacular patronymics, that is, from first names linked or associated with biblical figures, particularly those blessed by Jacob (Gen 49): (Yehudah)-Leib, (Binyamin)-Wolff, (Yissakhar)-Ber, (Naftali)-Hirsch, (Ephraim)-Fishel or Fisher; compare also Yaacov-Wurms, a translation of tola'at Ya'acov (Isa 41:14).
Time (day, month, season, or Jewish holy day)
There exists a small number of names linked to different periods of time, such as the days of the week — Sontag, Montag, Mittwoch, Freitag, as well as Ben Sheshet, Ben Shabbat; the names of Hebrew months — Kislev, Nisan, Sivan, Tammuz; the seasons of the year — Spring, Sommer, Herbst, Winter; or a Jewish festival — Yomtov, Bondi.
Acrostic name
Some family names are Hebrew acronyms, that is, names formed from the initial letters of a Hebrew expression. They may refer to a person's relatives: Berag (Ben Rabbi Gershon); Harlap (Hatan Rabbi Levi Pinhas); to lineage: Katz (kohen zedeq — of authentic priestly lineage), Segel (segan leleviyah — second to the Levites, or else segan lekehunah — second to the priest), Zacks (zera' qedoshim — descendants of martyrs); to occupation: Shub (shochet ubodeq — ritual slaughterer and inspector), Sass (sofer stam — scribe of religious texts: sefer torah, tefilin, and mezuzot). Sometimes, these names, when written in Hebrew, add two apostrophes (gershayim) before the last letter to signal that it is an abbreviation. One also observes the phenomenon of giving a Jewish meaning to foreign names by explaining them as acronyms: Byk (in Polish, "bull") explained as bnai Yisrael qedoshim, "the children of Israel are holy"; Walach (someone from Wallachia, a Romanian province) explained as the acronym of va'ahavta lere'ekha kamokha, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18); Azulai (a Berber name) explained as referring to priestly lineage and its marital prohibitions, ishah zonah vahalalah lo yiqahu, "they shall not marry a woman degraded by prostitution" (Lev 21:7). These latter names, shaped to give a Hebrew meaning to names of foreign origin, testify to a certain degree of literacy in the Jewish world, capable of recognizing the biblical passage.
Hebraized names (sometimes with Aramaic elements)
Many traditional family names are in Hebrew; however, the revival of the Jewish people in the twentieth century, marked by the return to the Land of Israel and by a resurrected Hebrew language, had its counterpart in the creation of family names. The early leaders of the Zionist movement changed their names: from Eliezer Perlman to Ben-Yehudah, from David Gruen to Ben-Gurion, from Moshe Shertok to Sharett, from Levi Shkolnik to Eshkol, from Yitzhak Shimshelevich to Ben Zvi, and from Meir Berlin to Bar-Ilan. After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the number of Jews choosing Hebraized family names increased.
Selective bibliography
- Ariel, Avraham, The Book of Names — 200 Most Popular Surnames in Israel (1997), in Hebrew.
- Beider, Alexander, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia (Bergenfield, 2004).
- Beider, Alexander, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland (Teaneck, 1996).
- Beider, Alexander, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, 2nd ed. (Bergenfield, 2008).
- Beider, A., "Names and Naming," The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (New York, 2008), pp. 1248-1251.
- Eshel, Moshe Haninah, Family Names in Israel (שמות משפחה בישראל) (Haifa, 1967).
- Hanks, Patrick (ed.), Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford, 2003).
- Kaganoff, Benzion C., A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History (New York, 1977).
- Laredo, Abraham I., Les Noms des Juifs du Maroc (Madrid, 1978).
- Menk, Lars, A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames (Bergenfield, 2005).
- Sebag, Paul, Les Noms des Juifs de Tunisie — origines et significations (Paris, 2002).
- Stahl, Abraham, The Origin of Names — Origins and Evolution of Jewish Names (Or Yehuda, 2005), notably pp. 155-290 [in Hebrew].
- Taïeb, Jacques, Sociétés juives du Maghreb moderne, 1500-1900 — un monde en mouvement (Paris, 2000).
Prof. Aaron Demsky, professor (emeritus) of biblical history at Bar-Ilan University, is the academic advisor of the Memi De-Shalit Database of Jewish Family Names. A specialist in biblical history, he is recognized for his research and publications on literacy and the historical geography of ancient Israel. In 1991, he founded and has since directed the Project for the Study of Jewish Names at Bar-Ilan University, where he organized several international colloquia devoted to names. He edited five volumes on the subject — These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics (Ramat-Gan, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2010) — as well as Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora (Studies and Texts in Jewish History and Culture, The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maryland, 2011). Among Professor Demsky's principal achievements, at Bar-Ilan University, is having made the study of Jewish names (onomastics) a recognized academic discipline within Jewish studies.
Text: Prof. Aaron Demsky's introduction to the Memi De-Shalit database of Jewish surnames, ANU — Museum of the Jewish People. Reproduced for reference purposes; all rights reserved to their authors.