In 1781 Emperor Joseph II of Austria promulgated the Edict Of Toleration for the Jews, which established the requirement for mandatory hereditary surnames. The Jews of Galicia did not adopt family names until 1785. Family names were then required throughout the Austrian Empire by the year 1787, with the exception of Hungary (Kaganoff, 1977 & Rottenberg, 1977). The great bulk of the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe continued to follow the tradition of using the personal name plus the father’s name (patronymic system). For example, Yisrul ben Zalman, Avraham ben Zevi (Rottenberg, 1977).
Table 1 SURNAME ORIGIN AND/OR MEANING PATTERNS KEY DESCRIPTION
P Patronyms-The most common form of surname. Names
are based upon those of the faher such as Aronson (son of Aaron).The ending -wicz or -witz designates, son of.
G Local Place Names-names based upon the name of a local city, town or place or place; such as, Rottenberg (a city in Germany).
O Vocational- names based upon a person’s vocation; such as, Schneider (Tailor)., Becker (baker), Fleisher (butcher)
H Family Symbols and/or Signs-names based upon family symbol or a sign that hung at or by the home; such as, Rothschild (red shield).
A,F Fanciful Names - Names that were imaginatively and/or assigned by clerks - Artificial names.
AN Animal Names - Derived from animals such as Lowe, Loeb
(from Judah the Lion which became Judah Lowe or Loeb)
D Names Describing Personal Characteristics-names; such as, Klein(small), Gross (large), Weiss (white)
M Names Derived From Feminie Names or Words - Often from Hebrew such as Bruck (Ben Rabbi Akiba); Levy (priests); or Rabbbinic in origin.
L Names From Acronyms or Denoting a Lineage-often from Hebrew; such as, Bruck (Ben Rabbi Akiba), Levy (priests)
JO An Ornamental Name Origin
U A name whose origin is unclear
Since Jews often had to move from one country to another, their surnames names often changed as they were translated from one language to another. For example, a Jew may have had the name Weiss. It means white in German, but would become Blanco in Spain, Feher in Hungary, etc. (Kaganoff, 1977).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Beider, A (1993). A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire: Avotaynu, Teaneck, NJ.
Beider, A (2004), A Dictioary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia: Avotaynu, Teaneck, NJ
Beider, Alexander, Eider, Alexander, Avotaynu, New York, 1993; A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames.
Betteridge, H. T. (1978). Cassell's German dictionary. New York: MacMillan.
Hanks, P and Hodeges, F (1998). A Dictionary of Surnames:Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hippocrene Books (1993). Polish-English, English-Polish Dictionary:New York: Hippocrene Books
Jones, G. F. (1990). German-American names. Baltimore: Genealogy Publishing Co., Inc.
Kaganoff, B. C. (1977). A dictionary of Jewish names and their history. New York: Schocken Books.
Klatt, E. & Golze, G. (1958). German-English; English-German Dictionary. Berlin: Langenscheid.
Hanks,P. and Hodges, F, A Dictionary of Surnames, 1998, Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Langenscheidt Editorial Staff, Pocket Dictionary, 2000, Berlin.
Rottenberg, D. (1977). Finding our fathers: a guidebook to Jewish genealogy. New York: Random House.
Smith, E. C. (1956)(1973)(1988). New Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Harper and Row.
Sola’, D. F. (1983). Spanish-English; English-Spanish dictionary. New York: Random house.
(Editors Note: Constructive criticism is invited. Queries, comments, corrections or additions should be submitted to the Author.
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Saul Zeichner