How Did Jews Choose Their Last Names?

[Ognir]

By Philologos
Wed. Jul 09, 2008

Sam Sherman of Voorhees, N.J., writes:

    "Many Jewish family names are those of cities in Europe, often with a suffix that means 'a resident of.' For example: Berlin-er, Frankfurt-er, Minsk-y, Pinsk-y, Slutsk-y, Posnan-ski, Smolensk-y, etc. But surely these families weren't known by the names of their cities while they were living there: They must have acquired them when they moved elsewhere, just as El Greco was known by that name not in his native Greece but after he moved to Spain. So when and why did so many Jews leave their former place of residence, taking its name with them, and where did they go?"

Mr. Sherman is, I think, only partly correct in his intuitively sensible conclusion that a 21st-century American Jew named, say, Roger Berliner must hail from a family that derives its name from an ancestor who once lived in Berlin and left it for elsewhere. There are several reasons why this is so.

When talking about Jewish family names, or at least, about the names of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern and Central Europe from which the great majority of American Jews descend, it is important to keep one fact in mind: Until the late 18th or early 19th century, very few Jews had such names at all. Every Jew, that is, had a Jewish "last name," but it was a personal one that was not passed on to children, since it was the name of one's father that was used on ritual occasions. If your name was Boruch and your father's name was Simcha, you were called up to the Torah as Boruch ben-Simcha; if your name was Rokhl and your father's name was Dovid, you were mentioned in a ketubah or marriage contract as Rokhl bas-Dovid. But your son Aryeh was called to the Torah as Aryeh ben-Boruch, and your daughter Rivka was written in the ketubah as Rivka-bas-Eliahu (if that was the name of Rokhl's husband). Such "last names" were one-generational.

The introduction of permanent last names into European Jewish life came with the decision of European governments to make their Jewish populations, which had previously been granted a large measure of communal autonomy, fully subject to the same state regulations and bureaucratic record-keeping as were other citizens. In the Austrian Empire, which ruled much of southern and eastern Poland, Jews were ordered to take such names in the 1780s and '90s; in Germany, in 1797; in tsarist Russia, in 1804.

How did a Jew choose a last name? There were various methods. Some Jews stuck with tradition and put a German or Russian suffix on their father's name, as in Jacobsohn or Chaimovitch. Some, in Yiddish-speaking areas where children were distinguished from other, similarly named children by their mother (e.g., Leib Sorehs, "Sarah's Leib," or Velvel Chayes, "Chaye's Velvel"), took their mother's names. Some, who were priests or Levites, called themselves Cohen, Levi or one of the many variations of these. Some took the names of their professions, by which they may already have been known locally: Thus, Itzik der shekhter, Itzik the slaughterer, became Itzik Schechter, and Yosl der shuster, Yosl the shoemaker, became Yosl Schuster. Some arbitrarily took names that appealed to them: Rosenblum, "rose blossom," for instance, or Goldstein, "gold stone." And some named themselves for places.

Now, it would stand to reason, as Mr. Sherman writes, that if you were named Leybl and had moved from Pinsk to Minsk, where there were quite a few other Leybls, you might have become known in Minsk as Leybl der pinsker, and so taken the name Leybl Pinsker. This probably happened fairly often — Jews, after all, were extremely mobile compared to other Eastern-European populations and often moved for reasons of marriage or work — and certainly must account for many names such as those Mr. Sherman mentions. And if you were Leybl der pinsker and wanted your official name to sound more Russian, you might prefer to become Leybl Pinsky.

But there were other ways, too, in which you might have gotten such a name. Perhaps you continued to live in Pinsk but worked (as many Jews did) as an itinerant peddler, going from village to village with your wares; in that event, you might also have been known in the villages you frequented as Leybl der pinsker and chosen Pinsker or Pinsky. Or it may have been that you were proud of living in Pinsk, or simply couldn't think of a better alternative, and registered yourself with the Russian authorities as Pinsker or Pinsky not because you had left Pinsk, but because you hadn't. There must have been cases of that happening as well.

And finally, there were, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, renowned rabbis — generally, Hasidic ones — who were also known by the places they lived in, so that Rabbi Aron of Karlin, for example, was called der karliner rebbe or der karliner, and Rabbi Yakov Yitzchak, the "Seer of Lublin," der lubliner. Could not some of the Karliners and Lubliners in the world today be their descendants? Had El Greco been famous in Toledo, he might still have been El Greco even if he had never gone anywhere.

Questions for Philologos can be sent to http://www.forward.com/articles/13721/

[joeblow]

"Many Jewish family names are those of cities in Europe, often with a suffix that means 'a resident of.' For example: Berlin-er, Frankfurt-er, Minsk-y, Pinsk-y, Slutsk-y, Posnan-ski, Smolensk-y, etc.

I'm a amateur linguistic and I would like to add in Polish "-sky/ski" used to be a suffix attached to surname to denote nobility and it is only that in the 1800's that Jews popularize the use among the lower classes. Also, in German "-er" is actually used more often in South Germany, like Bavaria. This fits in with my research concerning the Gothic/Hunnic origins of Bavarians and Ashkenazi Jews, listen to the show I did with forum member LatinAmericanView http://latinamericanview.wordpress.com/ ... ost-latin/ .

[Anonymous]

Interesting article, I knew of the bar- and ben- in biblical times, nice to see how all the names now are inventions without much familial ties as their origin.

[K-Sensor]

There's also the trade names, like dealers in gold or silver become Silverstein, Goldsky, etc.  Many adopted the well known surnames of the Nations they gypsy'ed to. Like in Wales many have the surname Jones.

Aschkenazi means foreigner, so its means a non Jew to real Israelite, if there are any real Israelites left.   If they came out of Khzaria then they'd have Arabic come Slavic surnames, or what every their tribe used before they adopted the Babylonian Jewish faith.  I doubt they are any relation to Judah and the tribe of Benjamin which were the captured Jews.

[joeblow]

Aschkenazi means foreigner

Ashkenazi in Hebrew means someone from Germany.

[sullivan]

I would like to add in Polish "-sky/ski" used to be a suffix attached to surname to denote nobility.

'ski' is actually -ski is an adjectival suffix which is added directly to a stem, 'ska' being the feminine variant.  The suffix means 'of' or 'of the'.  Łódzki, literally meaning "of Łódz" would mean 'from the town of Łódz or in some way connected with the town of Łódz.'  In Polish the word 'kowal' is 'blacksmith', 'kowalew' or 'kowalewo' is literally 'of the blacksmith' or 'the place of the blacksmith (the forge)', so the surname 'Kowalewski' is either 'of the blacksmith' or 'from the place of the blacksmith'.

The suffix 'sky' is normally associated with Czechs, Ukrainians and Russians and serves a similar purpose. However, it definitely does not comply with Polish spelling rules and is not an indigenous Polish surname.   Other Polish surname suffixes include 'owicz' or  'ewicz' meaning 'son of', 'owa', 'ewa','ina' and 'yna' indicating a married woman, and 'owna', 'ewna', 'anka' or 'ianka' indicating an unmarried woman.

Surnames from before the 15th century, including those ending in 'ski', 'ik' and 'owicz', indeed any suffix you can think of were noble, as only nobles used surnames.  It was not until the late 16th and early 17th century that those from outside the nobility began using surnames with any degree of regularity.

The popularity of ski/ska/sky surname suffixes amongst the Jewish populations comes with their preference for naming themselves after towns and cities. This practise is the same in Italy - where the largely Sephardic Jewish population also have surnames named after towns - although notably without 'di/da' prefix frequently used by non-Jewish Italians.  I have also found that many Jewish people I have met or had dealings with in the UK and Ireland also have surnames that are also placenames.

[joeblow]

I'm so happy that a linguistic discussion is going on! I have a personal theory concerning the Jewish tendancy to change names so often. I believe it is because that among themselves, they use the Semitic convention of FirstName ben/bar Father'sFirstName FamilyName. Thus in reality, they aren't really changing their true names, only the public names given to the Goyim.

[sullivan]

I'm so happy that a linguistic discussion is going on! I have a personal theory concerning the Jewish tendancy to change names so often. I believe it is because that among themselves, they use the Semitic convention of FirstName ben/bar Father'sFirstName FamilyName. Thus in reality, they aren't really changing their true names, only the public names given to the Goyim.

Many European surnames in fact had a patronymic (or more rarely matronymic) origin, morphing into surnames at some point. The Irish have O', Mac, Mc and Ni patronymic prefixes, Welsh had 'ap' and 'verch' genitive conjunctions. The Nordic languages have 'son' and 'dotter' patronymic suffixes. Finnish has the 'poika', 'tytär' suffixes. Portuguese has 'es' and Spanish 'ez', 'az', 'is', and 'oz' suffixes. Norman French had the 'Fitz' prefix.  What I am trying to say is that there was no tradition of Jewish surnames other than the patronymic after the given name, and that surnames of patronymic/matronymic origin were commonplace in their new places of residence, so the continued use of their patronymic last name would have fitted in just nicely.  The only problem would be that the 'ben'/'bat' Hebrew  prefixes or the 'bar' Aramaic prefix would identify their origin (or in the case of the Khazars and Sephardim, their adopted origin).

[sullivan]

Aschkenazi means foreigner

In reality, Ashkenaz means 'wanderer' or 'nomad'.  The term 'hebrew' has a similar meaning.

[Canard]

from mullins; hebrew, from aramaic habiru meaning 'bandits from across the river'

[sullivan]

from mullins; hebrew, from aramaic habiru meaning 'bandits from across the river'

I have seen other texts that claim 'habiru' or 'apiru' as 'nomad' or 'refugee'.  Others state that it means 'outsiders'. I like the 'bandits from across the river' explanation, though!

[Canard]

not a very shocking definition is it?

[Anonymous]

It's terrifying!!  You anti-shmiter!  I'm gonna report you to the ADL!

[Canard]

you mean that masonic organization of b'nai brith?  mason groups under control of the grand orient tradition mean nothing to me.

[sullivan]

not a very shocking definition is it?

No, but it has a ring of truth about it