"What is in a name?  A rose by  
another name is still a rose."

Song by the poet Zelda: "Everyone has a Name"
http://www.zchor.org/zelda.htm

"A good name is more important than great wealth"

Except for aristocrats, wealthy people and well off Jewish merchants did not get surnames in Eastern Europe until the Napoleonic years of the early 19th century. Most of the Jews from countries captured by Napoleon Russia, Poland, and Germany were ordered to get surnames.

The reason for the last names were for tax purposes. After Napoleon's defeat many Jews dropped their surnames and returned to "son of" names like MENDELSOHN, JACOBSON, LEVINSON, etc.

During the so called Emancipation, Jews were once more ordered to take on surnames.  When Jews adopted family names in the 18th and 19th centuries, the choice was frequently the patronymic and first names thus became family names.

"No matter what one's name is in any other language, all Jews can be assured that they have only one Hebrew name: the standard form is "first name son/daughter of father's first name.: Until the 19th century, when Jews in Eastern Europe had to take on surnames, it was by this way that one was known.  It is standard custom to put both the Jewish date of death and the Hebrew name of the deceased.  From a posting by Howard Zakai

Tip: When looking for names of relatives, I have found using nicknames, and Yiddish/Hebrew names seem to help.  I found my grandmother whose name was Beckie in English, Baila in Hebrew/Yiddish, but on the manifest was Babe which was a nickname.  This might help as it did in my case.  From a posting by Shelly Klink

 "Jews in the 1800's in Eastern Europe were generally not real attached to their last names - they didn't use it among themselves.  And they tried to avoid the draft in Russia by 'fiddling around', having baby boys registered as belonging to another family which had no sons, and doing other things to make it hard for Russia.  It was also not uncommon when the couple was not allowed to marry civilly that a couple would marry religiously and the babies would be considered 'illegitimate' by the government and have the  Mother's surname (the Father was not her husband according to the government."  From a posting to JewishGen by Sally Bruckheimer on 4//3/02

In Austria The Emperor Joseph made Jews take on last names in the late 1700s. Poland in 1821 and Russia in 1844. Probably some of our families have only had last names for 175 years or less. In France and the Anglo Saxon countries surnames went back to the 16th century.

Also Sephardic Jews had surnames stretching back centuries. (Spain prior Ferdinand and Isabella was a golden spot for Jews) They were expelled by Isabella in the same year that Columbus discovered America. The earliest American Jews were Sephardic.  With Dutch Jews, it was common practice to name the children after their parents while still alive, as opposed to the Ashkenazi.

The name of a child is not a very efficient way of establishing whether the ancestor was Ashkenazi or Sephardi.

Alexander Sharon, a noted genealogical authority posted the following answer to a post on 5/30/05 to a question by Marlene Bishow

"The list of the permitted name, if (one) exists, should be available through the Austrian Archives in Vienna or the two main Galicia branches in Lwów and/or Krakow. I personally have not come across one as yet. 

      Katz is a Sefardi surname (see Katz below) and it appears in the Jewish
      Galicia records before the introduction of Germanic names.

While Sephardi Jews have long since adopted the Spanish practice of surnames, the Ashkenazis have been very conservative, still following the antique custom of using their first, plus father's first name, in a Hebrew -Yiddish form, Dawid ben Solomon, for example.

"==Yes, I think it very likely that most of  the Jews to the east of Germany
who were surnamed variations of Ashkenazi, were  Jews who had originated in
Germany, a region known as "Ashkenaz" among  Jews.  I'm not sure that initially
most Jews "chose" their  surnames--rather, the locals attached surnames to
families as a way of referring  to a specific one, just as the names Gross and Klein, Lang and Kurz, Schwartz  and Weiss were bestowed. "

"I find weak evidence for the name Ashkenaz and its many variants always being associated with Sephardic roots, though this may have been the origin for some with that name. Rather there is another thread not yet mentioned that was more likely the origin of variations of that name.

When (Ashkenazic) Jews were expelled from Poland, some went to Italy and other places in the region. Most did not go with surnames since that was not yet the custom in that part of Europe, but Jews in Italy and other countries where they differentiated themselves from Ashkenazim, had already begun to adopt surnames. Some of the new immigrants were undoubtedly labeled as the Ashkenazim to differentiate the newcomers from themselves. And so, the name
stuck to a few families.

Someone in this conversation mentioned that an ancestor with a variant of that name had lived in Vienna. Before 1848, a small number of wealthy Jews lived in Vienna. People were granted the unusual privilege of living there when the head of household was eligible to obtain a high level of business license for trading or banking or had a profession that was useful to the government. Some Jews had the right of temporary residence to conduct business for periods of time, kind of like a visa, but then they had to leave the city. Who were these people? Most were part of the small number of families known as Court Jews. A few years after Franz Josef came to power as a teenager in 1848, he began a long process of  loosening things up for the Jews. It wasn't until Emancipation in 1868 that the residence restrictions for Vienna were abolished altogether.  Jews from all over the Empire began to pour into Vienna." From a posting by Suzan Wynne

"Lars Menk in his Dictionary of German Jewish surnames lists the sixty most popular Jewish surnames in Germany and the areas of Central and East Europe occupied by the Germans before 1918. The most popular was Meyer, then Levy, then Cohn; WOLF [f] is the fourth. I guess the popularity of the WOLFF name is about the same among all Ashkenazim." From a posting by Michael Bernet

==When groups of Jews settled in a new region of long-acculturated  Jews, they generally lost their earlier social an ritual distinctions within two  or three generations unless they were numerous and powerful enough [e.g. the Iraqi merchants among the Bnei Israel in India] to create their own minhag-preserving  community that would perpetuate the earlier lifestyles. We do know that some of  the Ashkenasi merchants and rabbis in Sefardi countries returned to their earlier  homes in countries with Ashkenasi customs, language and rituals. It is almost  axiomatic that others named Ashkenasi who stayed, became fully integrated into  the predominant Sefardi or Mizrachi culture. From a posting by Michael Bernet and Celia Male

Sefardi Jews have started to arrive in the territory of Polish Eastern Galicia following their expulsion from Spain and Portugal, (1492 and 1497, respectively) They have been settling in towns and suburbs of Przemysl, Drohobycz, Lwów and Stryj.

According to M. Horn [1] in the Red Rus (Eastern Galicia and Wolyn) lands there were in existence 110 towns and in the 25 of them have been already established Kehilat (Jewish communities).

Jewish Kehillot at this time were located exclusively in the 19 royal ("Miasta krolewskie") and 6 gentry towns (Miasta szlacheckie), mainly in the eight (8) towns of Lwów and seventeen (17) towns of Przemysl, Belz and Chelm  lands.

Sephardim were not accustom to the eastern Jewish lifestyle and the majority of them have moved south to Balkans, Turkey and Greece.

Some of the Sephardim families stayed in Galicia and from those families have originated known in our proud history such distinguished scientists, writers, philosophers and medical doctors as Abraham Halevi, Abraham ben Yehuda, Shabtai ben Joseph, a brilliant historian Nathan Hanower, and others [2].

I have been working for sometime on the translation of 17th and 18th centuries Drohobycz Jewish community records but the archaic Polish mixed with the Latin very long law sentences are very challenging.

In the one of those documents [3] there is a short list of the names of Drohobycz Jewish Community executives for years 1716-1765. List is not completed, in some years only Rashim (Heads or Ratmans) and the Head Rashi are listed, in some Anashim Tovim (Good Men) are also added. It also evident that some names were not readable in the original manuscript damaged by
humidity or mold.

Name Yehoshua ben Yosef KATZ (kaf-tsade sofit) appears amongst the other Anashim Rashim in Kehilat Vaad 1730 and 1734. Katz is definitely appears as his surname or perhaps his Kohen roots, as his and father's first names (Yehoshua ben Yosef) are follow by Katz.

I recall from my discussion with Israeli friend named Katz, that his surname depicts an alternative meaning of Kohen (Cohn, Kohn) - Kohein Tzaddik (hence: kaf tsadeh), and is definitely not a German for a cat.

This is probably the answer to Marlene's question about the special meaning of Katz in Galicia - it is a written proof that Katz was a Kohen indeed."

References:

[1] Horn, M. " Zydzi na Rusi Czerwonej w XVI i pierwszej polowie XVII wiekow.", Warszawa, 1975, page 32 "Jews in the Red Rus during 16th and the first half of 17th centuries"

[2] Caro, J.,  "Geschichte der Juden in Lemberg, Krakow 1894, page 45 "A history of the Lemberg Jews".

[3] "Reshimat Anshei Hakehilla beDrohobych bshanim 1716-1765"

Further regarding the surname Katz, Alexander Sharon posted the following on 6/2/2005
"It was my understanding that Ashkenazim Jews in Galicia had no official surnames prior to the introduction of the Austrian legislation.

Mention earlier Drohobycz Kehila records lists Yehoshua ben Yosef KATZ, Rashi of the Kehila in 1730 and 1734. Since Yehoshua ben Yosef was already his Hebrew name, how KATZ was added to this name:

 Yehoshua ben Yosef, KZ, or
 Yehoshua ben Yosef KZ?

And since Germans Jews had no official surnames prior to the introduction of
Judenregelment in 1797, how KATZ surname appeared earlier in Drohobycz ?

Couldn't Sephardim use Kohen Tzedek as the surname?"

"As continuation on the Poland's Partitions  subject, please allow me to initiate discussion on the origin of the Jewish surnames in Galicia and lands that were under the Prussia and Austria rules, since they are closely related.

All of us have been always interested with the issue of the origin of the Jewish surnames since this is our only link to the written genealogical records.

Galicia

As it is generally known, Galician Jews have been compelled to adopt German sounding surnames on July 23, 1787 during Joseph II, Empress Maria Theresa's son rule, following the introduction in 1781 the first genuine reforms in Central Europe - Judenreformen und Toleranzpatent (Jew-reforms and Edicts of Tolerance).

When in 1772 during the 1st Partition, Austria has captured new lands, which covered all of Western and Eastern Galicia, the Empire 1787 rule of surname adoption was extended to the all territories. This also included parts of Wolyn and Podolia that have captured by Austria at the same time.

This rule was extended to the regions of Sandomierz, Lublin and Radom acquired by Austria in 1795.

"There were some Jews who had previously adopted fixed surnames. While not a large proportion of the population, keep in mind that there were many circumstances that might have led to the use of fixed surnames.

When the Jews were invited to come to Poland by the Polish rulers, the idea was that the Jews would bring their financial skills and connections to the country. Many of the Jews welcomed in were from French and Germanic territory and some used fixed surnames because they were business people. Among those early settlers were important and influential rabbinic families seeking a haven where they could feel safe.

Rabbinic families had long used fixed surnames, though there were instances when the husband adopted his wife's surname if it were more prestigious than their own family name. When Poland exiled the Jews, they scattered widely. Some adopted surnames during their exile and returned to Poland with them when they were able to return to their interrupted lives and businesses. For instance, families who went to Italy adopted surnames there. The name Rappaport and other configurations of that name stems from that period. Some rabbinic families had long had surnames like Katz and Sack/Zack that are derived from Hebrew acronyms.  Another example of a family with a surname was a Fischel family that was invited to Poland by the king in the mid 1500s.  The family came  from Bohemia.  They were prominent court physicians, rabbis and money lenders for at least the next century and marriages to the females spawned several rabbinic families.

So, while the vast majority of Jews didn't have true surnames but used patronymics and matronymics, i.e., the names of their fathers usually but occasionally, their mothers, some Jews did have fixed surnames prior to the law mandating the adoption of surnames.  Then too, Josef II and his mother, Maria Theresa, had made one or two previous, albeit weak and mostly unsuccessful efforts, to require surname adoption during the earlier years of Austrian rule so, presumably, some people did comply with those earlier laws.

The vast majority of Jews did not have fixed surnames in 1788 and so had to adopt one.  I have never been able to find any official list (as there were in Germany) providing us with a link for the name used before and the new name. I have written to Vienna and for some years had conversations with people within the Mormon circle interested in Jewish records but no such lists have come to light as yet.  There are numerous lists of people in old documents that give us a clear picture of  what surnames people used prior to 1788 but without a conversion list, it is very difficult to make the leap from Chaim Dawidowicz to Chaim Rosenberg.  From a posting by Suzan Wynne

"It was a common practice as well as pre-1837 records of getting married or baptized to get a parish record as proof of who you were as a Ketubbah saying Moshe ben Isaac in Hebrew wasn't much help with an official over a will."  The reason the parish records entries stopped in 1837 was that compulsory civil registration of births was introduced that year.  Every (live) birth was required to be registered so that Parish Record entries were no longer needed.  From a posting by Malcolm Malki Katz and additionally by Henry Best

"Does anyone have the approximate proportion of Jewish males -- in specific communities, at specific times, or world wide -- who  are mustered among Cohanim (the Priestly group) or among non-Kohanic  Levites?

This posting is relevant to Jewish genealogy since the Cohen or  Levite status is hereditary in the male line, usually appears in records and  tombstones, and easily helps to establish the likelihood that a new-found person  is statistically likely to be of the same family.

Lars Menk states in his  Dictionary of German Jewish Surnames (Which includes large areas that were later  Poland, Czechoslovakia and Baltic Republics) that  of the 8, 696 different  surnames that he found, 0.6% were indicators of
Kohanic origin and 0.4% of  Levitic origin. That is the percentage of *names*, not of *individuals*.

He states that of the men he lists between 1800 and 1865, 1.87% were  named Cohen or a variant spelling (Cohn = 0.70%, Kahn 0.52%, Cahn 0.25%, Cohen 0.20%, Kohn 0.16%, Cahen 0.04%)

Levy (and variant spellings) for that  period amounted to 1.18% (Levy 0.64%, Levi 0.38%,  Lewy 0.15%, Lewi  0.01%)  Listed elsewhere is Lewin with an additional 0.32%

Somewhat  surprising are the figures for German Jewish soldiers who died in WW I (10,623  of them). 2.32% were named Levy etc. and 2.48% were named Cohn etc. Does anyone  wish to hypothesize why these names were so much popular (or the young men so  much more gung-ho to fight for the Kaiser) in 1914-1918 than in  1800-1865?

Full disclosure: My father's elder brother, Albert Bernet, and  his two Bernet second cousins, were killed in WW I.  It wasn't a large  family by any means--just two Bernet cousins survived!

Please note:   I am not enquiring about the frequency of the Cohen or Levy *name*, but about  the percentage of Jewish males in the world/in any community or period, who  were/are descended from the Kohanim or from the  Levites." From a posting by
Michael Bernet, New York

Galician Jewish Names - "In a blurb for the first book in a series "Grandeur and Glory (of Galicia)" by Rabbi Meir Wunder, (Avotaynu 2006) I noticed the following town names.

Barysz, Belz, Bilcze Zlote, Bohorodczany, Bolechow, Bolszowce, Borszczow, Borynia, Boryslaw, Brody, Broszniow, Bobrka, Buczacz, Budzanow, Bukaczowce, Bursztyn, Busk, Bialy Kamien, Brzezany, Brzozdowce, Czernelica, Czerniejow, Czortkow, Czortowiec, Delatyn, Dobromil, Dobrotwor, Dolina, Drohobycz, Dunajow, Felsztyn, Gliniany, Gologoory, Grabowiec, Grodek Jagiellonski, Gwozdziec, Grzymalow, Halicz, Horodenka, Husiatyn, Kalusz, Kamionka Strumilowa, Chocimierz, Chodorow, Cholojow, Chorostkow, Chyrow, Knihynicze, Kolomyja, Komarno, Kopyczynce, Korolowka, Koropiec, Kosow, Kozlow, Kozowa, Krakowiec, Krechowice, Krukienice, Krystynopol, Kulaczkowce, Kulikow, Kuty, Krzywcze Gorne, Lanczyn, Lanowka, Laskowce, Leszniow, Lomna, Lopatyn, Lwow, Lubien Wielki, Lysiec, Magerow, Mariampol, Medenice, Mikolajow, Mikuliczyn, Mikulince, Monasterzyska, Mosciska, Nadworna, Marajow, Nawarja, Nemirow, Nizankowice, Nizniow, Nowe Miasto, Nowy Witkow, Nowy Jaryczow, Obertyn, Olesko and Ottynia.

==I was surprised how many family names they evoked, names I'd encountered in life, names from postings to JewishGen, names in my morning newspaper.

==Who would have thought that Berisch, Burstein, Felsstein, Kalusch, Chodorov, Kosover, Kalikow, Laskow, Lopatin, Nemirov, Obertin, . . . might all be named after towns in Polish Galicia.

==Advice: whenever you come across a new Ashkenazi family name, run it through the ShtetlSeeker, _
http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/LocTown.asp_
using the Soundex option, of course. For all you know, even a Schneider or a  Schuster or a Schochet may be named after an ancestral town rather than after  his trade.

==And while you're about it, ask ShtetlSeeker to list the locations within  a 30-mile radius--it may give you other locations that were home towns for other  ancestors--or even conform to ancestors' surnames." From a posting by Michael Bernet MBernet@aol.com

Germany - Germans Jews had no official surnames prior to the introduction of Judenregelment in 1797.  Michael Bernet posted the following: "the customs of Western Ashkenazim (German, Dutch and Alsatian Jews) who settled in England and established their first congregation in 1690 - just 35 years after the re-admission of Jews to England.  These Jews retained the Germanic pattern by taking their father's first name as the second element of their name (e.g. London's first Chief Rabbi, Solomon Hirschel, was the son of R. Hirschel Levin; as Frankfurt's Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch was the son of Rafael Frankfurter).  In other words, their custom was to add the father's name to their own but did not assume their father's name.  It was these Germanic Jews who established the rituals of Britain's United Synagogue that remains the English standard, even after the arrival of Polish/Russian immigrant Jews a full two centuries later (starting around 1890).

"The information stamped on Nazi German "Empire" certificates is a notice that all Jewish men are named Israel and women are named Sara.  It officially takes away the first names which the people were actually given."  From a posting by Sally Bruckheimer.

"This is a common misconception, but is not strictly true.  The name Israel or Sara as an additional name, and the Nazi-era documents dated after the addition of the name generally include both the original and the added name, e.g. "Alfred Israel Cohn".  I have seen notations of the name addition on many birth certificates, and in one or two cases the notation specified the position of the added name, whether as first or second name.  Apparently the order could be and sometimes was interpreted in such a way as to allow this choice.

These notations are useful for genealogy in that they establish the presence of the individual, alive and in Germany, on the date of the notation, as the person had to appear at the original registry office in person to carry out the order.

The added names were removed upon order of the occupation authorities and in some cases the birth record includes a formal notation of the removal.  Unfortunately, these notations, which I have seen dated as late as 1960, have no genealogical significance at all, as I have seen them on records of people I know from family members to have perished."  From a posting by Dick Plotz

For more information on German names, go into the JewishGEN GERSIG archives and click on "names". Family names became obligatory in 1787 in Austria and in Prussia in 1812.

"In many states, these "new" family names could be chosen freely.  In others, certain types of names were not allowed (but "old" family names were not affected by these restrictions).  This usually applied to names from the  Hebrew Bible and names based on place names, which shows that the purpose of such measures was to prevent Jews from taking "new" names that were "typically Jewish".  In other words, the authorities wanted to reduce the differences between Jews and Gentiles to a minimum, making assimilation a prerequisite for "emancipation", i.e. equal rights. Note that in Prussia and elsewhere, Jews were given citizenship "on condition" that they take a permanent family name."  From a posting by Joachim Mugdan

Poland - JRI-Poland also has their website Patronymic files which can be downloaded and viewed. These files cover the years 1808-1825 when many Jews did not have surnames and when the Jewish records were recorded together with their Christian neighbors.  JRI-Poland volunteers have extracting data from these LDS film in order.  Look on the homepage for the link to the patronymic files.
http://jri-poland.org/

Poles do not use patronymics. An unmarried woman may attach "owna" to her maiden name. In some cases she would use "anka" rather than "owna". In similar way a married woman would attach "owna" to her husband's surname. These forms are used less often nowadays.
 

Prussia

Prussia introduced similar to the Austrian law in 1797 known as Judenregelment and forced the use of Germanic surnames on the Jewish population of captured during three
Partitions:

Pomorze (Gdansk), Chelmno, Warmia part of  Wielkopolska with Bydgoszcz, Torun and  Malbork were captured in 1772. This territory became known as West Prussia.

Following Prussian 1793 acquisitions (2nd Partition) the rest of Wielkopolska (Gniezno, Poznan),  Plock, Lodz, Czestochowa regions were also incorporated and became known as South Prussia.

1795 (3rd Partition) Prussian new acquisitions of  Mazowsze (included Warsaw) became known as Mazovia, and NW region west of Niemen River (Bialystok) was named New East Prussia. The new territory located south of Czestochowa was named New Silesia.

E.T.A ( Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, a vicious anti-Semitic Prussian law officer was placed in charge of the enforcing Germanic sounding surnames through the new Prussian territories.

Hoffmann developed a list of an 'acceptable' for Jews surnames, and he and his malignant staff clerks foisted unpleasant surnames on the poor Jews, who were unable to came up with a bribe to secure a 'pleasant' surname. Hoffmann became later famous after the publication of opera "The Tales of Hoffmann".]
 

Russia

Russia has introduce law for surnames use for Jews in 1804 during but in reality start enforcing this policy only in 1834.

And this is my point - Jewish people that have been under Austrian or Prussian reign prior to 1815 Vienna Congress have been already given German sounding surnames which have been later accepted by the Russian administration. And this is a main reason for the Jews having German sounding surnames through the Congress Poland."

References:

[1] Karl Emil Franzos, "Namensstudien", 1880
[2] Erwin Manuel Dreifuss, Die Familiennamen der Jude, 1927
[3] Dietz Bering "The Stigma of Names. Anti-Semitism in German Daily Life,
1812-1933", Cambridge 1992 The above dissertation was posted by Alexander Sharon on 5/25/05

Isser Kulisher published a book of Jewish given names in 1911 that were prevalent in the Russian Empire.  It's primary purpose was to help the Russian bureaucrats determine who was who as far as Jews were concerned.  Isaac could also be Izack or Itzack, etc.  Boris Feldblyum translated Kulisher's work into English and Avotaynu republished the introduction, names and index with Feldblyum adding his own commentary.  The book "Russian-Jewish Given Names," begins with a historical overview of Jewish given names from the Russian Empire.  Followed by a list of all the given names Kulisher could find, organized by root name often including its etymology.  The last section is an index listing all names alphabetically and identifying the root name.

"For those of us interested in genealogy, it is important to know exact origin of the family name: is it Poland, Ukraine or Russia?  It can tell where this name was adapted - where your ancestors used to live.  What's more - Russian, like some other Slavic languages, has three forms of adjectives: masculine, feminine and neutral.  In Polish, the name Charny would be: Charny - Carna - Charno (in Polish Ch = Cz and in  Cyrillic, it is one letter not present in Latin).  When I was Charny in Russia, my wife was Charnaya.  If you are Charny in Lithuania, it would be charnas (or Charnis) and your wife and daughter would be Charnene and Charnaite.  Charny is  Polish and - Chorny in Russian and - Cherny in Czechs, etc.  In Russian, it is "Black", "Dark" is "Tyomny" (tyomnaya, tyomnoe)."  Posted on JewishGen on 12-8-1996 by Vitaly Charny.

Link to the 1804 and 1835 "Imperial Statutes Concerning the Organization of Jews," which required Jews to take surnames.  Vysochaishe utverzhdennoe Polozhenie. - O ustroistve Evreev
Imperial Statute Concerning the Organization of Jews
December 9, 1804 
http://www.olswanger.com/article32.shtml

Polish Names
http://www.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/namelist.html#ukrainian

In general there were Five types of names: (people had to pay for their choice of names; the poor had assigned names)

1. Names that were descriptive of the head of household:

Examples:
HOCH (tall)
KLEIN (small),
COHEN (priest),
BURGER (city or village dweller),
SHEIN (good looking),
LEVI (temple singers),
GROSS (large),
SCHWARTZ (dark),
WEISS (white)
Kurtz (short)

2. Names describing occupations:

Examples:

Holtz (wood)
HOLTZKOCKER (wood chopper),
GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith),
SCHNEIDER (tailor),
KREIGSMAN (warrior)
Malamed (teacher)
EISEN (iron),
FISCHER (fish)

3. Names from city of residence:
Examples: BERLIN, FRANKFURTER, DANZIGER, OPPENHEIMER, DEUTSCH (German), POLLACK (Polish), BRESLAU, MANNHEIM, CRACOW, WARSHAW

Auerbach
Bamberger
Baumberger
Berlin
Breslau
Brody
Cracow
Danziger
Deutsch (German)
Dreyfuss (Alsatian corruption of Treves)
Dresner (Dresden)
Frank (From Franconia) -- some say it's like Frankel, a sobriquet for Ephraim
Frankfurter
Horowitz (Slavic: Gurovitz)
Landau (From London)
Lasker
Littauer  (From Lithuania)
Mannheim
Oppenheimer
Pinsky, Pinsker (From Pinsk)
Pollack (Polish)
Schlesinger  (From Silesia)
Schwab (From Swabia)
Spiro (Speyer from Speyer, whence also Shapiro) Pollack (From Poland)
Warshaw
Weil
Wiener (From Vienna)
The above information obtained from a posting by Nick Landau to JewishGen on May 26, 1998

4. Bought names:

Examples:

Berg (mountain)
Diamond
GlucK (luck)
Kershenblatt (church paper)
KOENIG (king)
Koenigsberg (king's mountain)
LIEBER (lover)
ROSEN (roses)  
ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf)
ROSENBERG (rose mountain)
Rothman (red man)
SPIELMAN (spiel is to play)
Stein (glass)
Wasserman (water dweller)


5. Assigned names (usually undesirable):
PLOTZ (to die)
KLUTZ (clumsy)
BILLIG (cheap)

Argentinean Surnames - on this web-site you'll find an index of almost all the surnames actually in use in the Argentine Republic (based on 1997 data), with an indication of how many people, aged 18 or more, have each surname.
http://surnames.rutrin.com.ar/index.shtml

Jews - who we are.  Tribe Finder
http://www.shoreshim.org/tribefinder/tribe/default.asp

It was very common in the 19th century that sons took different surnames to avoid military service. It was also common that sons took their mother's surname.

Russian Names - Russian oriented cultures, the "middle" name is the first name of the father connected by a suffix of "vitch" (or variation) for "son of" and "ovna (or variation) for "daughter of".  Then comes the actual surname.  From a posting by Maria Torres

Searching for First and Last Names In many on-line database search forms, the first name field is optional, so how do you know whether you should include a first name in your search?  Searching on-line with only a surname increases the number of 'hits' you will get, thus increasing your choices of sites to visit and  potentially find information.  Using a full name on the other hand, reduces the number of hits you get, which can be helpful when you're dealing with a popular surname.  When searching with an uncommon name, search with only surnames; use full names when you're searching for information about someone with a really common name.

Belarus Given Name Database
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames/

JewishGen Name Database
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames

A surname taken from a place is called a Toponym.

Surname Navigator
Search multiple databases with one surname entry.   This is a very interesting site as once you fill in with a surname, because of its unique multiple database searching, many different sites that the site finds containing the surname selected by you pops-up.  Although I didn't find any truly relevant connections, it did provide me with some interesting links.
http://www.rat.de/kuijsten/navigator/russia/index.html

These are the countries that Surname Navigator searches:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/geniza.html

Books

"A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History"  - authored by Benzion C. Kaganoff published by Schocken Books, New York in 1977 Buy from Amazon.com

 "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland" - authored by Alexander Beider  Buy from Amazon.com

Note that many times, old records spell a name one way, while shtetl records may spell (or even name the same person) differently.  Much of these differences come about because of the specific location within a country.  My surname, Margulis, is pronounced Mar goo liss in Ukraine, and Mar GO liss in Lithuania and Poland.  This is one of the problems that a Jewish genealogical researcher faces, so therefore Mr. Daitch and Mr. Mokotoff created a Jewish version of the Soundex system.  This system allows a search on every possible name that uses most of the same letters and will return every possible name it identifies with those letters. A free database covering  these area include: the Ukraine, Belorussia, Bessarabia, Lithuania, and Russia.
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3173.htm

"A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire"   Buy from Amazon.com

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3173.htm

"Everyman's Judaica" - 

  A great research resource.  Click on the image for additional information.

"Hebrew Deeds of English Jews Before 1290" - authored by Myer David Davis and published in London by Publication of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibit, No. 2, Office of the "Jewish Chronicle", 1888).
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

"Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary" - authored by Heinrich W. & Eva H. Guggenheimer Buy from Amazon.com

"Jewish Naming Convention in Angevin England" - by Eleazar ha-Levi. The purpose of this paper is to use the naming conventions adopted by the Jews of Medieval England (c.1070 - 1290) as a way of generalizing the rules of period Jewish naming. Three basic rules were applied in naming Jewish children throughout the medieval period and, even, up to the present time: the Talmud, kinnui (secular) versus shem ha-kadosh (sacred) names, and the role of the female in Jewish ritual practice.
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/jewish.html

"Jewish Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive Forms" - authored by the late Rabbi Shmuel Gorr and later edited by Chaim Freedman and published by Avotaynu in 1992.

"Les Noms des Juifs du Maroc" authored by Abraham Laredo and published in Madrid, Spain in 1978

"The Mountain of Names: A History of the Human Family" - authored by Alex Shoumatoff.  It is a fascinating work for anyone interested in genealogy

"The Origin of Jewish Surnames" - authored by Benzion Kaganoff

"Russian Jewish Surnames" - authored by Boris Feldblyum

General Name
Information

"Inherited surnames were virtually non-existent among European Jews at the beginning of the 19th century.  Depending on where your family came from, adoption of surnames occurred officially as late as 1845 in Prussia, 1826 in Russia.  Jews in Prussia were forced to take surnames in 1812.  The rules were applied in Austria in 1787, under French (Napoleonic) rule in 1808, and in most of Germany before 1820."

"The Jews however did not adopt the names with enthusiasm -- they helped the government tax and draft and restrict the Jews.  In the culturally more advances countries, the adoption of surnames was linked to a wide range of civil and civic rights; in many cases, however, these rights were soon limited again or rescinded."

"Brothers often took the same surname; cousins didn't coordinate.  It wasn't just a matter of indifference, though, that cause different names to be adopted."  From a posting by Michael Bernet mBernet@aol.com on 11/21/02 on JewishGen

"In the case of oral traditions, the number of generations from the event will impact the story.  Says Chaim Freedman, noted genealogists and author, "If someone's grandfather says HIS grandfather was a fourth generation descendant of a famous rabbi, there are 32 possible lines of descent."  If the link is not found by the current generation, and the next generation must look for it, there will be 64 lines to research."  This was obtained from an article entitled "It's All Relative: Seeds of Truth" by Schelly Talalay Dardashti in her column - City Lights -in The Jerusalem Post dated February 14, 2002
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/17/
JewishWorld/JewishWorld.43575.html 

Schelly Dardashti e-mail address: schelly@allrelative.net 

I found the following posting on JewishGen of February 20, 2002 by Jeanne Gold quite interesting as she showed the sources she had used to find Lomza - and Israel MORRIS.  This information could be used by others - a sort of a template to follow for finding information.  Thank Jeanne Gold  Groupie@digging4roots.com not me.

Using the Morse/Tobias search pages
stevemorse.org  
for the Ellis Island database produced over 200+ hits for the surname MORRIS.

Next I tried the Consolidated Jewish Name Index - a database of more than 370,000 surnames, mostly Jewish, extracted from 31 other databases and offered by Avotaynu.
www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html 

and more than 180 names came up for the DM 694000 (MORRIS). Specifically for this surname, I found the following references most suggestive:

MORES - A,B; MORETS - B,J,N; MORETZ - B,M; MOREZ - B; MORICE - S; MORIS - I,Q,m; MORISSE - R; MORITS - C, H, J; MORITZ - A, H, I, L, M, P, Q, R, S, T, i ,j, n

which means these surnames can be found in the following:

A: JRIP
B: All Lithuanian DB
C: All Belarus DB
H: JewishGen Family Finder
I:  Family Tree of the Jewish People
J: Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire
L: Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories
M: Index to Russian Consular Records
N: Belarus Surname Index
P: First American Jewish Families
Q: Palestine Gazette
R: Gedenkbuch (128,000 German Jews murdered in the
     Holocaust)
S: Index to Memorial to the Jews Deported From France
T: National Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
i:  Cleveland (Ohio) Burials
j:  Birth Index for Buda Jewry 1820-1852, 1868
n: ROM-SIG Family Finder

and most interesting:

m: Surnames in the Lomza, Poland, Yizkor Book
http://www.rechtman.com/lomza_2.htm 

Analyzing the Geographic Distribution (habitat) of a Surname - Alexander Kott alexkott@yahoo.com offers a simple method to analyze a surname, which in turn helps to speculate about the geographic origins, etymology and migration of the surname
http://www.geocities.com/alexkott/KOTT-KOT-COTT/index.htm 

Ancestry.com -

First Name Last Name

Behind the Name - the etymology and history of first names which deals with English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Muslim, Indian, Irish, Mythology, Biblical and many more name subjects 
http://www.behindthename.com 

Kabalarian Philosophy behind a name - Ask yourself: "If I did not have a name, how could I identify myself? If I had no name, who would I be?"
http://www.kabalarians.com/cfm/your.cfm

Personaemicon Online - facts about people's names and their meanings.
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Denmark: Top 100 Surnames in Denmark and more
http://www.mydanishroots.com/surnames/100_most_common_surnames.html

English Versions Of Foreign Names - this list is not a bible, just more commonly acceptable name conversions.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/
sc/oconee/misc/foreign-names.txt

The population of the 19th century England to which most of today's
Anglo-Jews emigrated was far more homogeneous; thus,  "foreign" names
stuck out like a sore thumb.  So  the rate of Anglicization of Jewish
names was far higher than in USA -- where Jewish names would hardly
stand out in the New York City phone book among the names of German
or Russian gentiles. From a posting by Judith Romney Wegner

Family Chronicle - Surname Origin List 
Family Chronicle
http://www.familychronicle.com//namesae.htm

Family names (surnames) were not used officially by Jews in Germany (except in Hesse-Cassell) until the early years of the 19th century (the year depends on location).  Male Jews were known by their first name followed directly by the name of their father sometimes with the addition of Jud; Females were known by their first name+wife/widow/daughter of  [full name]. Submitted to JewishGen Discussion Group by Michael Bernet on 12/22/01

Foreign Name Cross-Referenced - This site allows you to cross-reference English given first names to their Czechoslovakian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian, Russian or Yiddish or equivalents. Great site!   
http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/names.html

German Names - according to Alexander Beider, author of several books on the subject of names, he observed that "Jews borrowed a very significant number of names from their Christian neighbors during the 11th to the 13th centuries."  His research into Jewish first names also led him to question what many Jewish historians have long held as fact -- that the Jews of Eastern Europe were descended from the earlier Jewish settlements in the Rhineland.  "This idea is very simplistic" and accounts for only part of the picture, he said.  "It should be nuanced"

"German Jews did not name children "after" a living ancestor.  That was as much a non-no as it was in Eastern Europe. Nor was there a hard-and-fast rule about whom children were named after  ;  it was something worked out by the parents on the basis of those who had died, those who had already had a child named after them, the social or rabbinic standing of an ancestor, whose side of the family needed appeasement and so on--and often on the basis of a relative who had died in the months immediately preceding the birth."

"There are two reasons why some mistakenly assume that children were named AFTER a certain living person.

1.  In Western European countries it was the official civil (not Jewish) rule that Jews without specific surnames had their fathers' names tacked on after their own. My oldest recorded ancestor in the direct male line was Suessel Hirsch;  all his children had Suesslein tacked on their names: Hirsch
Suesslein, Salomon Suesslein, Mandel Suesslein, Elkan Suesslein and so on. Hirsch's son Suesslein was called Suesslein Hirsch, Salomon's son might be names Suesslein Salomon and so on.  This was very close to the Hebrew naming system where the word for "son of" (Heb. "ben," Aramaic "bar" would be placed between the name of the son and of the father.  This pattern often continued for a generation or so after family names were acquired;  often these family names were the names of the father, e.g. my ancestor Baruch, son of Wolff took the full official name Baruch WOLFF.  Again, though the second part of their name was that of their father, it remained the father's personal name and was never the son's personal name."

2.  "There was no rule about giving someone the same first name as that of a living person.  In my mother's family there were many ancestors named Leo and many named Jonas. As a result my mother had nearly a dozen cousins named Jonas (her grandfather had 16 children) and another dozen named Leo.  She also had a brother named Jonas; the only reason why she didn't have a brother Leo was that she had only one brother."

"From about 1850, with the spread of reform Judaism and a giving up of traditions, some Jews in Germany (and France and Hungary and the United States . . . were less concerned about Jewish traditions and here or there a child might even be given the father's name, but it was relatively rare and cannot be said to have been part of a style or subject to a rule."

"It warms my heart to see how JewishGenners are eager to help fellow Genners understand their ancestry but we should all be careful not to simply repeat as if true stories that we have not properly learned or studied."  From a posting by Michael Bernet mbernet@aol.com   on 1/19/03

In the 19th century, Jews in Germany strongly began to adopt a certain set of about 500 German secular names which were ultimately recognized by the rabbis as acceptable to be written in a Get (Jewish divorce document).

Folk etymology is just one of the many fascinating aspects of Alexander Beider's Books.  Additional information about "A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation and Migrations" can be found at the Avotaynu site
http://www.avotaynu.com/books/dagn.htm

Given Names Database -
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames 

Another useful database of likely Given Names abbreviations can be referenced at
http://www.jewishgen.org/belarus/vr_abbrev.htm 

Some of the entries included in the
Vsia Rossia - "All Russia" Business Directory
refer to different state and local offices where Jews were not allowed employment.  These entries are of less interest to Jewish genealogy so, to save time and money, these fields may contain un-translated Russian transliterations.

And 
WebWide Surname Locator
http://obitlinkspage.com/surnames/ 

Hebrew Naming - The website : "My Hebrew Name" offers a free, online,
database to look up, view, print and save your/their Hebrew name (s).
http://www.my-hebrew-name.com

Your Hebrew name is displayed using the Hebrew characters with nikud (vowels) and provides a transliteration for those who have not yet mastered the reading of this ancient/modern language. You do not need Hebrew fonts to view or print the Hebrew names.

The database also contains thousands of English names linked to the Hebrew names, although one's English name (s) and Hebrew name (s) may not be related.  The Hebrew Name database contains direct transliterations of many Hebrew names, offering many links between English names and Hebrew names  based on popular usage. From a posting on 6/15/04 by Pamela Weisberger pweisberger@hotmail.com

Holland - In the Netherlands, as in all of French Napoleonic occupied Europe,
the Jews were ordered to choose [and register with the local "Maire"] a
surname [as all (!) inhabitants were considered citizens], over here that
was in 1811.

Hungarian Naming - "Many of my Hungarian Jewish relatives had names that are on Rachel's list or are similarly Germanic or Hungarian."

"Rachel doesn't indicate the context in which she found these names
(e.g. civil records, Jewish records, census records) or whether her
relatives used these name in Hungary or after they emigrated.  She
also doesn't indicate whether they also Magyarized their surnames.
My less affluent, more orthodox Hungarian relatives spoke Yiddish at
home and used Yiddish names among family but had a Hungarian name
used outside their immediate circle."  

"For example, my mother has a cousin she always referred to as Pinchas who identified himself as Paul to immigration officials and was called Pityu in Hungary.  Many affluent and assimilated Hungarian Jews spoke Hungarian or German at home and  were given Hungarian or German names, rather than Yiddish names at birth. In the birth records their religious (Hebrew names) are in parentheses following the Hungarian given name."

"Other examples include my father B. Kereszt, Hung. in 1903, who was named Elemer, a very Hungarian name that is not really a Magyar version of Elmer. His family spoke Hungarian at home.  He could only understand Yiddish, which my mother spoke at home, because he had
studied German in school.   He had a brother born Miksa who was called Max.  Several cousins were named Arpad, another traditional Magyar man's name with no Anglo counterpart. I've also come across or have family named Maria (Marika), Ludvik (Lajos), Marta, Frieda
(Fried), Hugo, Kornel (Cornelius)." Submitted by Vivian Kahn, Hungarian SIG Coordinator 1/23/03

Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Iranian Naming - as in family names around the world, Iranian names (of any religious origin) can indicate geographical location, physical or personality characteristics, occupation, etc.

Jewish Given Names Found in Les Noms Des Israilities en France
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Jewish Men Names, 6th to 11th Centuries
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Jewish Naming Traditions - there are many sources for explanation of Jewish naming traditions.  Sephardic and Ashkenazic traditions differ greatly. 
For detailed information:

http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/GivenNames/slide7.html

http://www.jewishgen.org/sefardsig/differ.HTM

http://www.kolot.com/FS1999/names.shtml

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/jewish.html

http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/jewish.shtml

Jewish Naming Conventions in Angevin England
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Jewish Naming Guide - a table listing many of the popular names with suggestions for what Hebrew/Jewish names they might take
http://www.kolot.com/FS1999/names.shtml

"In traditional circles in the shtetl  were kinnuim fairly loosely associated in the way that secular  names and their Hebrew equivalents are used nowadays, or were there more  rigid naming conventions and if so how do we determine what applied at  that time?" 

Names in the Fayvush family of Yiddish names were kinnuim for the Hebrew name Yechezkeyl in only the following countries:  Austria, Germany, and Holland.  To my knowledge, Fayvush was not a kinnui for Yechezkeyl in Lithuania.

One of the reasons for these variations from region to region in Europe for where kinnuim were used with specific Hebrew names, was that the Yiddish dialects were different across Europe.  Thus in Western Europe, the Yiddish dialect was the Western European dialect (including Germany and Holland), in a transitional region (which included Bohemia, Moravia, parts of Hungary, and other regions) transitional dialects between Western and the Eastern European dialects were used, the Litvish dialect was spoken in Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, NE Ukraine and NE Poland, while in most of Poland and Galicia the Polish/Galician dialect was spoken, and in most of Ukraine, parts of Eastern Galicia, Romania, and SE Poland the Ukrainian dialect was spoken.

This topic of Hebrew name/Kinnui relationship was the subject of intense research by rabbis throughout Europe for a number of centuries, as the Yiddish dialects slowly changed and moved around.  Their research results were compiled in Jewish law books for Divorce procedures, such as the "Aruch Hashulchan" which applied to the regions where the Litvish dialect was spoken, and the "Get Mesudar" which was mainly applicable to the
regions of Germany, with additions for Hungary, and Poland.

For their region and time period, the rabbis' research consisted of gathering name data from Divorce Rabbis (those who wrote the Get for a couple who were divorcing) and analyzing these data statistically for names which must be written in the Gittin.  The results of their  data analysis showed clearly what were the Hebrew-name/Kinnui relationships which were chosen by Jews on a statistical basis.  The rabbis summarized these results in their books of Hilchot Gittin (Laws of Divorce) and these books were guidebooks for the Divorce Rabbis.

One must not be rigid in using these regionalized Hilchot Gittin books, for Jews moved around from region to region for a wide variety of reasons, including finding a marriage partner, and also forced migrations as a result of persecution.  So, it is possible to find exceptions to the rules listed in one region's book.  Still, this exception only allows genealogists to adopt a trial hypothesis which much be proven by further research."

One can obtain more information by reading the discussions included in the JewishGen Given Names Data Bases web site at this address:
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames

From a posting by Prof. G. L. Esterson

In a message dated 9/3/2006 5:51:44 A.M. Eastern  Standard Time, Ema609@aol.com writes:

<<  If i remember   correctly  according  to Jewish law  if  the mother is married to a  man  and  the baby's  father is not the  husband  it is considered illegitimate as she  has no  last  name to give it . If  a woman is not married and has a baby it is legitimate because she can give it her  last  name.  >>


==a point of reference important in  genealogical research: There is no concept of "surname" in Jewish law. The  surname didn't officially exist in the past and is irrelevant today.  In halakha (Jewish law) a person is known by his/her own name and  a patronym  (occasionally a matronym or a husband's name).

==Jewish law considers all  children to be legitimate, unless the child is a mamzer, the fruit of a  forbidden union, either according to the rules of incest or because the mother  was married to someone other than the child's father when the infant was  conceived. According to sociologists and anthropologists, the latter ruling is  based on custom among pastoral and agricultural tribes and relates to keeping  property within the tribe/clan/family. Surnames are irrelevant in this context;  parentage is the central issue.

==a mamzer is "excluded" from the  community and cannot marry a legal Jew but can marry another mamzer or a  gentile. A mamzer's child is also a mamzer but the child of a gentile woman and  a Jewish mamzer is considered a gentile and can convert to Judaism without the  mamzer's stigma.

==While a mamzer is excluded from Jewish marriage,  he/she inherits within the family like any other heir, he/she can hold any  office (even become a king) and according to Horayot 3:8, "a mamzer who is a  scholar takes precedence over a high priest who is an ignoramus."

==When  Christian or state records indicate a birth as illegitimate, it is based on church rules and can mean that
1.  the father is unknown
2.  the  father is known but the union did not accord with church law because the  marriage was performed as a Jewish ceremony only (a "shtille chuppe" in Yiddish)  because either the union was considered incestuous by church law but not by  Jewish law (e.g. with a niece or a cousin), or was not authorized by
the civil  authorities who imposed strict limitation on the marriage of Jewish men,  requiring a prospective groom to have large assets or a profitable career, or  limiting the number of men in a family who were legally permitted to marry--generally one only--in order to limit the size of the local Jewish population. (This was a major impetus for migration)

==In past centuries  in Europe, a child whose father was not know would be a grave embarrassment to  the family and to the community. The mother was frequently compelled to leave  the community. Not infrequently she was paired off with a non-Jew, or she was  encouraged by the local church to be baptized. The child was often taken in by  relatives, or sent to live with relatives far away  ("nach Amerika" is the  comment on the family tree for a nephew of my 5xgf).  The mother of a  mamzer, and the child, too, were an even greater embarrassment to the family and  the community.

==Being classified as illegitimate in church registers or  civil registers did not affect the standing of the couple or their children  within the Jewish community or according to Jewish law and customs, so long as  the union was halakhically accepted. The child of a Jewish couple who are not  married to each other but whose union would have been religiously acceptable,  bore no official stigma (but it might well have been a family  embarrassment. From a posting by Michael Bernet,

Khazarian Names - Kevin Brook
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Medieval Jewish Names - organized by period and location and by etymological origin. 
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/jewish.shtml

Medieval Spanish Jewish Names of the 13th and 14th Centuries and Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Middle Names - "We have to be careful in interpreting 'middle names'.
In most places, Jews did not have middle names as we know them in the 21st century US."

"Many Eastern Europeans had a patronymic, usually with a '-witz' or '-owna' ending, with variations because of different languages.  However, sometimes the patronymic did not have such ending-this was common in Western Europe-Marum Moses was Marum the son of Moses."

"It is also possible that the 'middle name' is not a separate name, but part of a double name- Abraham Samuel Ruslander had the first name 'Abraham Samuel' and no middle name.  He could be called Abe or Sam or something else.  It can be confusing as nobody specifies."

"The 'middle' name can also be a nickname, some characteristic which is used to distinguish the holder of the name from others of the same first name.  My favorite is a Dutch 'Verooglooper' (please excuse the spelling, I don't have any copy of a document at hand).  Abraham Verooglooper-Abraham the Gimp in English.  Sometimes you get a place name used this way as well."

"It is possible that the wife's name is added-like Mina's Abraham (in English) as opposed to another Abraham.  Minin could well be this, as the form is right."

"And there can be a Yiddish, a Russian, a Polish, a Lithuanian, a Hebrew name-it is possible that one of those got tossed in with another."

"And of course there are various types of diminutives of the various types, so there are lots of possibilities. For this particular situation I don't have any firm
answer. " Posted on JewishGen 4-23-03 by Sally Bruckheimer sallybru@bluemoon.net

Name Searching on the Internet - people search database
http://www.yahoo.com
follow the link for People Search and enter the name you are researching.
Also try Google
www.google.com
Here you can use a name and/or a phone number in the 'Search' bar

Names from Hebrew Chronicles of the 10th to 13th Centuries
www.pantera-designs.com/pnec/personaemicon.htm 

Naming Customs - In a message dated 1/15/2003 10:15:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, DanielGee@btopenworld.com writes:

"as I understand it. It is traditional to name a baby after a deceased
relative, but to reconsider if a relation with that name is alive."

"That is a common misunderstanding.  It is common to give a child a name by which to keep the memory of the deceased among the living.  Among Ashkenazim in general, one doesn't call a child "after" a living ancestor.  However, there is NO qualm about giving many children (cousins etc) the same name, either after the same ancestor or a different ancestor."

"There is a custom that it is improper for a person to utter the name of a
parent or grandparent.  Thus, if my father Isaac is alive, I might hesitate
to call my child Isaac after my wife's deceased father of the same name."

"I might even hesitate to marry a woman named Sarah if my mother Sarah is alive; if I'm not that rigid about things, I might call my son by the variant Itzik or Eysig, and my wife Sorke or Sarai."

"Essentially, "calling after" is a special honor for one deceased;  there is
no rule against naming many people in the extended family by the same name, either because they're commemorating the same ancestor, or because they're commemorating different ancestors, or because it's a name that my wife and I happen to like."

"The critical point is "naming after." Nothing wrong with just "naming."  From a posting by Michael BernetMBernet@aol.com  on 1-19-03

"In Sephardic circles it is an honor to name a child after a living relative.  Often the name is reversed so that the new baby is Yakov Yosef after a  father named Yosef Yakov.  This is a tradition."
 
"In Ashkenazic circles a child is usually not named after a living relative.  This is a custom.  To think that giving a name to a child after a living  member of the family is a death wish, is  superstition." 

"It so happens that in Germany it was quite common to name a child of Jakov Joseph, Joseph Jakov.  The child's personal name was Joseph. He was not "named" after the father.  It was simply common practice that Jews who had no official surname were officially known by their own first name followed by the father's first name, without the intervening "ben" or "Sohn des."

"Not long ago someone on this list expressed surprise that the famous leader of Modern Orthodoxy, Rabbi Samason Raphael Hirsch bore the same name as his father.  It must be emphasized that he was not "named" Raphael after his father (who was initially named Raphael Frankfurter while he was living in Hamburg); rather, his identity was augmented by the addition of his father's name. Such naming pattern (son's name + father's name) was quite common until the mid-19th century among Ashkenazim in most parts of Europe, including England."

"A Jewish woman was also recorded at birth by her name and her father's
name;  after marriage, if her name was mentioned in a document, it was either "wife of Joseph" or as "Hannah Joseph."  A widow would have been called simply Widow Joseph."  Synagogue records generally followed these patterns, and even tombstones might occasionally leave out the "ben" in the sequence of son + father name.

Religious naming practices among observant Jews:

1.  Boys are not named until the 8th day after birth, when they undergo Bris Milah (circumcision)

2.  Girls are named in synagogue by their father the Saturday immediately following their birth.

New York Times Names Index - the index lists all the names that have appeared in the NY Times including obituaries from 1851 to 1998.  There is also a separate Obit Index.  These libraries have a subscription to this index: Princeton University; Monmouth University; Clark Library; City University of the City of New York.

Patronymic - a name derived from that of the father.  Example: in a typical Russian name "Mikhail Sergeievich Gorbachev" the second name is a patronymic: it means "son of Sergei", and signifies that this man's father's first name was Sergei.  Many Jewish family names originated as patronymics:  for example my family name was originally Israelovici, and became my great-grandfather's last name because his father's firs name was Israel.  This was quite typical in Romania, where the modern-style family name was not universally adopted until late in the 19th century.  From a posting to soc.genealogy.jewish on November 18,2002 by Robert Israel israel@math.ubc.ca

Patronymic is not just a Russian phenomenon.  We see the same thing in Jewish records all over Europe, before (and after) inherited surnames.  To this day, a Hebrew tombstone will say Abraham ben Isaac, Abraham son of Isaac - often with no  surname at all.  Christians also use and use patronymics throughout Europe.  The Netherlands and Nordic countries used patronymics until very recently - and now we have many inherited surnames which ends in -son and some which end in - daughter which derive from them.  Within Britain, patronymics were used, but not as recently as some other countries.  From a posting by Sally Bruckheimer on JewishGen on November 19, 2002.

"A patronymic is a name derived from that of the father.  For example, in a typical Russian name "Mikhail Sergeievich Gorbachev" the second name is a patronymic; it means "son of Sergei", and signifies that this man's father's first name was Sergei.  Many Jewish family names originated as patronymics... This was quite typical in Romania, where the modern-style family name was not universally adopted until late in the 19th century. From a posting by Robert Israel

And addendum posted by Udi Cain - "It may interest some of you to know, that the usage of patronymic goes back thousands of years. Hundreds of Israeli personal seals (not the kind which we find in the sea:-))/stamps from between the 9th and the 7th century BC were found in Israel, bearing mainly the first name of their owner + Ben (son of) X (father's name), for instance: Shalum Ben Anner.  If such person would have lived after the Napoleonic era, he might have been called Shalum Anneri / Shalum Annerson, or something alike.