Polish Jewish Surnames

See also: Jewish surnames, Ashkenazi Jewish surnames

Polish Jewish surnames

Polish Jewish surnames are those carried by Jews or descendants of Jews who have lived in the different political entities that today cover the region we know today as the country of Poland. Official registration of all surnames in Poland, including Jewish surnames, started in the late 18th century. This does not mean people did not have surnames or family names up until that time, but that surnames were not used to identify people as they interacted with the government and administration on an official level. Surnames were earlier used mostly by the nobility (szlachta in Polish). Surnames, as an official and binding legal identification for all people, are thus a relatively modern phenomenon in Poland.

Concerning Polish Jews in particular, Jewish families adopted or were assigned surnames sometime between 1790-1825, some of them returning to names that were transferred from generation to generation by oral tradition. Most people were known until that time by their first name (or names) and their father’s name. Notable examples are the 16th-century Rabbi Moses Isserles of Cracow (known as Remu), whose last name is derived from his father’s name: Israel.

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History of Polish Jewish surnamesHistory of Polish Jewish surnames

The Cover of the Napoleon Codex of Civil Registry - published in Warsaw 1813

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Poland did not exist as a defined and independent political entity, but was partitioned by its three neighbors: Tsarist Russia, the Habsburgian Empire, and Prussia. Each part of the partitioned lands was under a different law, and hence the adoption of names worked differently in the different areas. The areas under Russian rule were also divided between areas annexed to Russia and areas operating under the Kingdom of Poland, which was under Russian control. Yet all countries had in those years adopted some parts of the Napoleon Codex for civil registry, which introduced surnames to all the population under the ruler’s control. In some areas (the Habsburgian-controlled Galicia e.g.), the Jewish community’s council (kahal), was the administrative body responsible for such surname assigning, and in some countries, a clerk sent by the central government was the one doing the registry and name assignment. Family names were assigned to the heads of household (in most cases, the father of the family, male), and his name was given to the whole family. Once the name was assigned, the descendants of the person would continue using the surname, even if it no longer described them (in terms of their occupation, physical traits, etc.)

The hand gesture of the Kohanic-priestly blessing, in the signature of Gershom Katz, 1544

Up until governments required Jewish families to take official last names, family names changed with every generation. Sons received a first name, then "ben (father's first name)", and daughters would be named with a first name, then "bas (mother's first name)". When it came time to choose or be assigned a surname, some Jewish families returned to oral traditions about their family’s origins and lineage. Some people adopted names to note their status as Kohen or Levite (both castes of priests and workers in the ancient temple of Israel-Judea) and adopted the name Kohn\Kagan\Katz or Lewi\Lewin\Lewita.

Some families, especially of rabbinic descent, adopted surnames originating in Germanic-Italian lands in medieval times, such as Shapiro (for the city of Speyer in Germany), Horowitz, or Rappaport. Some Jewish families that were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15-16th centuries passed oral traditions of the last names they had back then and were re-used or reclaimed when the use of surnames was introduced to the general public in Polish lands. The best example of this is the famous Yiddish writer Yitzchak Leibush Peretz, born in the Congress Kingdom of Poland city of Zamość, coming from a Portuguese family who settled in Poland in the 16th century that originally carried the Spanish surname Pérez.

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Variations in Polish Jewish surnamesVariations in Polish Jewish surnames

Rabbi Moses Isserles

There are many types of Polish Jewish surnames; some are a description of a person’s lineage, origin, physical traits, or occupation, and some are based on random, arbitrary administrative needs. It’s important to note that many surnames in Polish function as adjectives and have female and male versions: the wife of one Krakowski would be Krakowska, the daughter of one Chudy would be Chuda, etc. "Cki - zki" were variations of "ski - ska".

There were further distinctions made between surnames of married, or widowed, and unmarried women. A name starting with the father's root name and ending in "anka" or "owna" denoted a woman not yet married, while a name starting with the husband's root name and ending in "owa", "ina" or "yna" belonged to a woman who was or had been married. Other common names are derived from a place of origin: a person coming from Cracow could be assigned the name Krakower, or Krakowski.

Note that people named Krakowski were usually not living in Cracow at the time they adopted the surname. Place-based surnames were usually given to people who came from that place originally, or traced their roots to that place, and were living elsewhere. This is because surnames were chosen according to what made a person or family distinct from the people living around them, so naming everyone in a town after their place of residence would undermine the purpose of the surnames.

Polish Jewish names of Germanic origin and the myth of purchased surnamesPolish Jewish names of Germanic origin and the myth of purchased surnames

Many Polish Jewish surnames are beautiful phrases in German that do not relate to anything about the person, such as Goldman (gold person), Silberberg (mountain of silver), or Rosenthal (rose valley). Some others, like Geldshrank, Wohlgeruch, Kałamarz, Afterduft, Kanalgeruch, Różanykwiat, Wanzenknicker, Singmirwas and Ochcenschwanz were particularly notorious and even obscene. There were legends of price lists for such names, but that has been difficult to confirm. There is one theory that such names in German were given to Jews, especially in Russian-controlled territories, in order to distinguish them from the Polish-Catholic population, which at that time fought for independence from Russian control with the support and participation of a significant number of local Jews. However, most of the surnames assigned to Jews in Russian-controlled Poland were patronymics like Joselewicz, Abramowicz, Berkowicz, Jakubowski or Dworkowicz; most of the records with these infamous surnames mentioned above are from the Austrian-ruled Galicia.

Can Jews be recognized by their surnames?Can Jews be recognized by their surnames?

A writer of Holy Scripts (Heilikschreiber)

In general, since many Jewish families adopted ordinary Polish names like Kowalski or names of Slavic origin, it is challenging to distinguish Polish Jewish surnames from other Polish surnames based solely on name. Some names are more typical for Jews, like those describing farm animals (e.g. Kozia or Gęs) or natural landscapes, but these surnames were used for non-Jews as well.

Surnames that are almost exclusively Jewish are patronymics from Jewish first names (like Berkowicz or Mordkowicz, coming from Ber-Dov and Mordechai-Mordko respectively), or those regarding religious Jewish occupations, such as:

• Rabin or Rabinowicz (rabbi)
• Heilikschreiber (writer of holy scripts)
• Tehilimzuger (reciter of Psalms)

Types of Polish Jewish surnamesTypes of Polish Jewish surnames

Polish Jewish surnames of toponymic originPolish Jewish surnames of toponymic origin

There is a significant number of Polish Jewish surnames that refer to towns, cities, or shtetls, often places where the family once lived. These last names often have -ski or -er suffixes, the latter sometimes Germanized: Pinczower, Lubliner, etc.

• Warszawski – “from Warsaw”
• Krakowski – “from Kraków”
• Lubliner – “from Lublin”
• Tarnopolsky – “from Tarnopol” (Ternopil, Ukraine)
• Brzezinski – “from Brzeziny” (or “birch place”)
• Bialystocki – from the city of Białystok
• Radomski – “from Radom”
• Danziger – “from Danzig” (today Gdańsk)
• Zamojski – “from Zamość”
• Piasecki – “from Piaseczno” or “sandy place”
• Grajewski – “from Grajewo”
• Sieradzki – “from Sieradz”
• Rapaport – the origins of the family can be traced back to Rabbi Meshulam Jekuthiel HaKohen Rappa (d. 1450) who settled in Porto, Mantua, Italy.

Polish Jewish surnames of patronymic originPolish Jewish surnames of patronymic origin

Derived from an ancestor’s given name, these often end in -son, -witz, -ski, or -er.

• Abramowicz / Abramsohn – “son of Abraham”
• Jakubowicz / Jakobson – “son of Jacob”
• Levinson / Lewinson – “son of Levi”
• Zalmanowicz – “son of Zalman” (Solomon)
• Davidowicz – “son of David”
• Hershkowitz – “son of Hersh”
• Benesz / Beneszowicz – “son of Beniamin”
• Mordkiewicz – “son of Mordechai”
• Izaakson / Izakowicz – “son of Isaac”

Polish Jewish surnames of matronymic originPolish Jewish surnames of matronymic origin

Matronymic surnames, (deriving from the mother's name) are due to women trading or shopping in the marketplace, thus being more well-known to citizens of a town. The men were more likely craftsmen working from home or deeply involved in religious study.

Some matronymic surnames are also derived from a woman who had a significant role in a man's life.

• Ending in "s", as a possesive - Menkes, son of Menke
• Ending in "man" or "mann", as in Perlman, son of Perele (Pearl)
• Ending in "kin", such as Dvorkin, son of Dvorka (Deborah)
• Ending in "in", as in Goldin, son of Golda
• Ending in "ski," as in Rywski and Rywin, both meaning "son of Rivke (Rebecca)"

Polish Jewish surnames of occupational originPolish Jewish surnames of occupational origin

These names reflect traditional Jewish trades or roles in the community and may be originated in the name in Yiddish, German, Polish or Hebrew for such occupation.

• Szewczyk / Shuchatowitz – “shoemaker” (szewc in Polish)
• Goldszmidt / Goldschmidt – “goldsmith”
• Handelman – “trader/merchant”
• Sukiennik – “cloth merchant” (sukno = cloth)
• Kupferman – “coppersmith”
• Melamed – Hebrew for “teacher”
• Dayan – “rabbinical judge”
• Sofer – “scribe”
• Rabinowicz – “son of the rabbi”
• Shames – “synagogue caretaker" or "sexton”
• Hoffman – "steward"

Polish Jewish surnames of descriptive originPolish Jewish surnames of descriptive origin

These names reference personality, virtue, appearance, or abstract values—often in Hebrew, Yiddish, or German.

• Freidman – “peaceful man”
• Hoffman – “hopeful man”
• Lieberman – “beloved man”
• Feinberg – “fine mountain”
• Klein – “small”
• Gross – “big”
• Geller – possibly “yellow” or “cheerful”
• Schwartz – “black”
• Weiss / Weissman – “white”
• Zeligman – from Zelig, Yiddish for “blessed”
• Chudy – "thin"
• Wysoki – "high" or "tall"
• Ceimny – "dark"

Polish Jewish surnames of rabbinic originPolish Jewish surnames of rabbinic origin

Some Polish Jewish surnames are associated with rabbinic dynasties, Talmudic scholarship, or were “purchased” during surname mandates.

• Epstein – famous rabbinic lineage from Bohemia/Poland
• Horowitz – prestigious rabbinic family
• Teitelbaum – Hasidic dynasty; name means “date palm”
• Rapaport – prominent rabbinic family generally considered to possess among the oldest and best recorded Kohanic pedigrees.
• Halberstam – from a famous rabbinic family
• Spira / Shapiro – from Speyer, used by rabbinic dynasties
• Landau – prominent rabbinic family
• Ginzburg – noble-sounding; often linked to literati or scholars
• Luria – from Rabbi Isaac Luria’s family (the Arizal)
• Katz – acronym of Kohen Tzedek (“righteous priest”)
• Segal – Segan Leviyyah, assistant Levite (priestly class)

Celebrities with Polish Jewish surnamesCelebrities with Polish Jewish surnames

Adrien Brody.

• Agata Kornhauser-Duda - First Lady of Poland from 2015 to 2025 as the wife of president of Poland, Andrzej Duda
• David Miliband - British Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010
• Adrien Brody - American actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist, becoming the youngest actor to win the award at age 29
• Isaac Bashevis Singer - Polish novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated his own works into English.He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.
• André Citroën - French industrialist and the founder of French automaker Citroën
• Roman Polański - Polish/French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three British Academy Film Awards, ten César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d'Or.
• Helena Rubinstein - Polish/American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder and eponym of Helena Rubinstein Incorporated cosmetics company, which made her one of the world's richest women

See alsoSee also

• Jewish surnames
• Slavic surnames
• Hebrew surnames
• Ashkenazi Jewish surnames
• Patronymic
• Matronymic
• Russian Jewish genealogy
• Russian surnames
• Hungarian Jewish surnames
• Russian Jewish surnames
• Serbian Jewish surnames
• Polish Jewish surnames
• Czech Jewish surnames
• Ukrainian Jewish surnames
• Hungarian Jewish surnames
• Jewish surnames
• Macedonian Jewish surnames
• Bulgarian Jewish surnames
• Serbian Jewish surnames
• Ukrainian surnames
• Belarusian surnames

Explore more about Polish Jewish surnamesExplore more about Polish Jewish surnames

• Discover the origin of your last name on MyHeritage
• Poland - Collection Catalog at MyHeritage
• Lodz Ghetto List from JewishGen record collection at MyHeritage
• Auschwitz Death Certificates, 1941-1943 record collection at MyHeritage
• Pinkas HaNitzolim, Volume II, Register of Jewish Survivors from JewishGen record collection at MyHeritage
• What is a surname at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
• New York Immigration from Austria, Poland and Galicia 1890-1891 record collection from JewishGen at MyHeritage
• How to Search for Your Family in East European Archives on the MyHeritage blog
• The Polish Priest Who Revived the Legacy of a Lost Jewish Community on the MyHeritage blog
• Family names in the Polish Language at Culture.pl
• Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames From the Kingdom of Poland, 1995
• Polish Patronymics and Surname Suffixes at JewishGen
• GABIN List of Jewish Surnames, from a Polish Business Directory
• Surnames (That Appear Frequently) in All CRARG Records. Częstochowa-Radomsko Area Research Group

ReferencesReferences

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