Jewish surnames are family names used by people of Jewish origin. The history of Jewish surnames reflects the long and diverse experiences of Jewish communities throughout the world, and are a product of both religious and cultural traditions, as well as historical factors such as migration, assimilation, and persecution. Some Jewish surnames are distinctive and easily recognizable, and they often carry important cultural and historical significance.
Historical background
In Jewish tradition dating back to Biblical times, individuals are given a Hebrew name that consists of a given name and a patronymic and/or matronymic. For example, the son of Jacob and Rachel may be known as Reuven ben ("son of") Yacov v'Rachel. If the individual is a Levite or a Cohen, this is often mentioned in the Hebrew name as well: for example, Reuven ben Yacov Halevi ("Reuven, son of Yacov the Levite"). Hebrew names are still used in traditional Jewish communities for ritual purposes, with the patronymic typically being used for religious and communal functions and the matronymic most commonly used when praying for an individual who is ill.
The adoption of fixed surnames among Jewish communities was as varied and diverse as the locations and cultures where these communities have lived. While the use of surnames among Jewish people in Europe began several hundred years ago, the use of surnames dates back to medieval times in some Sephardic Jewish communities. Sephardic Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal before the expulsion in 1492 often had Arabic or Spanish surnames.[1] Many Jewish families in the Middle East and North Africa have historically used Arabic or other local names, often reflecting their occupation or place of origin. Across all Jewish communities, various forms of the surnames Levi and Cohen were commonly adopted in families with a tradition of Levite or Cohen heritage.
Surname traditions and customs in Jewish communities have also evolved and changed over time. In North America, for example, many Jewish families adopted Anglicized surnames when they arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[2] In 19th- and early 20th-century Palestine and the newly established state of Israel, many families changed their European surnames to Hebrew ones to reflect their new national identity.[3]
Ashkenazi Jewish surnames
See also: Ashkenazi Jewish surnames, Polish Jewish surnames, Russian Jewish surnames, Ukrainian Jewish surnames, Hungarian Jewish surnames
The Ashkenazi Jewish community began to adopt surnames in the 18th and 19th centuries along with the dominant culture. In some cases, Ashkenazi Jews adopted surnames voluntarily; in some cases, local authorities forced them to adopt a surname. Many surnames typically associated with Ashkenazi Jews are derived from German or Polish.
Sephardic Jewish surnames
See also: Sephardic Jewish surnames, Moroccan Jewish surnames, Turkish Jewish surnames
Sephardic Jewish surnames are often much older than Ashkenazi surnames, with Hebraic, Aramaic, Spanish, Portuguese, or Arabic roots.[1] Many Sephardic Jews who migrated to Eastern Europe after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 later re-adopted their original Spanish or Portuguese surnames.
Mizrahi Jewish surnames
See also: Persian Jewish surnames, Bukharan Jewish surnames, Iraqi Jewish surnames, Mountain Jewish surnames, Georgian Jewish surnames
Before Arab and Muslim-dominated lands fell under Western control, Jews were named according to the patronymic and honorific Arabic naming system that included the kunya (كُنية), a teknonym given to an adult derived from their eldest child;[4] for instance, Maimonides was called Abū ʿImrān Mūsā bin Maimūn bin ʿUbaidallāh al-Qurṭubī, which means "Moses 'son of Amram', son of Maimon, of Obadiah, the Cordoban".
Many Mizrahi Jews lived in the Ottoman Empire, where surnames were not mandatory. After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and with the Western Powers controlling most of the former Ottoman lands, surnames began to be used in an official manner.
Yemenite Jewish surnames
See also: Yemenite Jewish surnames
There has been a recorded Jewish presence in what today is Yemen since the days of the Himyarite Kingdom, which was established in 110 BCE.[5]
Yemenite Jewish surnames can have an array of meanings. Some names related to occupation such as: Kapach (poet, from the city of Qafih), Naggar (carpenter, from the city of Najjar), Taviv (doctor, from the city of Tabib). Others can be toponymic, like Tzan'ani (from Sana'a), Habani (from Habban) and Taizi (from Taiz). Upon emigration to Israel, some Yemenite Jews did hebraize their surnames, like Nadav (Nadaf), Avivi (Awawi) and Mizrachi (from Mishreqi), which is a surname that can be found among some Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews.
Ethiopian Jewish surnames
Until their mass immigration to Israel during Operations Moses, Solomon, and Joshua, Ethiopian Jews followed the naming conventions in Ethiopia, where people were given a first name and the father's first name, without changing it to a patronymic form -however, this was by no means a surname. Occasionally, the paternal grandfather's name was also added as a middle name.[6] In the West as well as in Israel, newer generations use names in the standard Western first name + surname format, with the surname taken from the father upon leaving Ethiopia.
Indian Jewish surnames
See also: Bene Israel surnames, Cochini Jewish surnames, Iraqi Jewish surnames, Bnei Menashe surnames
Judaism is perhaps the first foreign religion to arrive in India in recorded history.[7] Indian Jews are a small religious minority who have lived in India for more than 2,000 years, with the remarkable fact of India being one of the few places in the world where antisemitism has been absent from the Hindu majority, as well as noticeable assimilation in the local languages and cultures.[8]
Italian and Romaniote Jewish surnames
See also: Italian Jewish surnames, Romaniote Jewish surnames
The Romaniote and Italkim are known for being not just distinct from the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews but for being among the most ancient Jewish communities, with records of their presence in Greece and Italy going as far back as the 2nd century BCE.[9][10] Their surnames are closely derived from the region near Rome, as in the case of the Italkim (or Roman Jews) and in the case of the Romaniote, they tend to "sound" more Greek than those carried by their Sephardic brethren in Greece.
Hebrew Jewish surnames
See also: Hebrew surnames
There are also a significant number of Jewish surnames that have their origin in the Hebrew language, with the most ancient related to religious roles, like Cohen, Levi or Melamed, as well as the Hebraized surnames, which have been adopted especially in the first stages of the Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel and which consist on adaptations, modifications or brand-new creations in the Hebrew language intended to discard their surnames originated in non-Jewish languages and cultures, like Lavi, Ben Tov, Amitai and Gershuni.
Celebrities with Jewish surnames
- Steven Spielberg, American filmmaker
- Emmanuelle Chriqui, Canadian actress
- Daniella Korn Ruah, Portuguese actress
- Alexander David "Alex" Bregman, American baseball player
- Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress
- David Guetta, French DJ
- Eyal Golan, Israeli singer
See also
Explore more about Jewish surnames
- Last names on MyHeritage
- Historical records from Israel on MyHeritage
- How to Research Your Jewish Ancestors on MyHeritage, article by Daniella Levy on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sephardic Family Research Guide, updated September 2008. Center for Jewish History, courtesy of the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute
- ↑ How Did American Jewish Names Come to Be?by Jesse Bernstein, The Jewish Exponent, January 21, 2021
- ↑ The Hebraization of Jewish Surnamesby Joel S. Davidi Weisberger, Jewish Link, August 1, 2019
- ↑ Annemarie Schimmel, Islamic Names: An Introduction, Edinburgh University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-85224-563-7, ISBN 978-0-85224-563-7
- ↑ Robin, Christian. Himyar et Israël. Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres (eds): Comptes-Rendus of séances de l'année 2004th 148/2, pages 831–901. Paris 2004
- ↑ Ethiopian EthnoMed
- ↑ Weil, Shalva. "Indian Judaic Tradition" in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds) Religions in South Asia, London: Palgrave Publishers, 2006. pp. 169–183.
- ↑ Weiss, Gary (August 13, 2007). "India's Jews". Forbes. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
- ↑ Taking Greek Jewish Life to the Streets of New York. My Jewish Learning
- ↑ Early Settlement in Rome. Jewish Encyclopedia