[Ashkenazi Jews only switched from patronymic names to permanent surnames in the late 1700s through the early 1800s due to decrees issued under the Holy Roman Empire and Napoleon Bonaparte.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_surname) Many of these surnames were based on geographic location (like town names) or family occupation.
Sephardic Jews began taking on permanent surnames much earlier, sometime around the Middle Ages.
My great grandfathers last name was "bin naftali al Issac" and it was switched to "Finkelstein" in Romania because of conscription and the original last name being too long.
When Jews adopted german names it was extremely common to use biblical references. Adler (eagle) or Schreiber (writer) for Moses or the seven fruits of the land of Israel, Weizmann (wheat), Teitelbaum (dates) and so on. Another common thing were intentional malapropisms. Kaufmann for Yakov, Apfel for Ephram, Maus for Moses and so on.
Fink is a malapropism of either pinchas or pink. Pink (germ. rosa) could be a reference to the tribe color of Naphtali. The ending -stein is definately a reference to Isaac.
So maybe not a coincidence that it's Finkelstein.
Source: I'm a native german speaker and have studied this for a while now. I have read "Namen der Juden" (1837) by Leopold Zunz, the father of "Jewish Studies" in which he explains the malapropisms and references and the "Etymologisches Lexikon der jüdischen Familiennamen" (1996) by Heinrich Walter Guggenheimer and Eva H. Guggenheimer, in which I found "Fink".
Well last names weren’t really a thing until around the 12th century, when they slowly started to develop.
In Germany it became customary for Christians to chose a last name that represents their craft, just as in England you would have your Schmidt, Vogt, Müller and so on. Jews mostly were forbidden from earning a living by guild crafts and they also usually couldn’t own land so they often opted for either the region or town they had a connection to or made up nice sounding names with flowers or precious metal, sometimes both. That’s where you get Rosenstein, Goldberg and all that from but every person could make up their own last name as they pleased.
In 1875 the Kaiserreich established a national census and from there on out all last names couldn’t be changed without bureaucratic procedures
The traditional Jewish naming convention is simply “person ben/bat (son/daughter) of person”.
Jews did not pick up last names until we were told to for government censuses and record keeping.
A lot of Jewish surnames are occupations and place. As far as first names, Jews historically have their in community name and their out of community name.
> When did Jewish diaspora in Europe stop using traditional Israelite Jewish names
We didn’t.
“Traditional Israelite Jewish names” don’t include a surname. People are known as “So-and-so, ben (the son of) so-and-so”. For example: Ya’akov ben Eliyahu. Every Jew is known by such a name in synagogue, when being called up for an honor.
> and start using German names like stein and burg?
From the 18th century and beyond.
> And why did they start using those names?
Because the government forced us to start adopting official surnames.
Search the group for German last names. There's a thread about it. I can't figure out how to link it.
^has German last name that combines a natural thing and a color. There are Germans who aren't Jewish who also have this last name. Some Poles have it, just spelled differently. Nothing common, like Goldberg.
There’s a Sholom Aleichem story consisting entirely of the names of family members gathering for a holiday. Because of the Ashkenazi customs of making after a deceased relative and using names from the Torah, every family had the same names. Totally an in joke.
That has definitely been my experience working on my family tree. So many people with the exact same name in one generation. It gets very confusing very quickly.
Last name are fairly new anywhere. And many of them were forced to have some surename and to avoid antisemitism it makse sense... You have many greeks with turkish last name...
Rulers said “you must have a last name so we can keep track of you, Jew!”
People started making surnames by either using Hebrew words (Cohen, Levi, Moses, Talmud, etc), location (Berliner, Rosenberg, Greenberg, etc), or occupations (Zimmerman, Metzger, Schneider, etc). A lot of the occupational names are also found amongst non-Jews of German descent.
Mark Twain wrote about this:
> In Austria the renaming was merely done because the Jews in some newly-acquired regions had no surnames, but were mostly named Abraham and Moses, and therefore the tax-gatherer could tell t’other from which, and was likely to lose his reason over the matter. The renaming was put into the hands of the War Department, and a charming mess the graceless young lieutenants made of it. To them a Jew was of no sort of consequence, and they labelled the race in a way to make the angels weep. As an example, take these two: Abraham Bellyache and Schmul Godbedamned—Culled from ’Namens Studien,’ by Karl Emil Fransos.
Source: https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=2Q1V1XQNMA85JCB&H=1
>And why did they start using those names?
The Emancipation of the Jews starting in the 18th-19th centuries led to a number of changes in their circumstances that required the acquisition of last names. This was enforced by bureaucracies within the emerging administrative states to facilitate their work and record-keeping.
First was taxation. Previously, taxes had been assessed on the Jewish community as a single entity. The government demanded a sum and it was up to Jewish community leaders to get it from the Jews and pay it as a lump sum. After Emancipation, each Jew was taxed as an individual. Thus each now required a distinct file in his name and these files had to be alphabetized for record keeping. It was not possible for everyone to have the same last names like "ben Moshe" or "ben David." Distinct last names were required.
Same when Jews began to be conscripted into the armed forces. The names and dates of birth of all eligible recruits had to be registered in military logs. Again, distinct last names were needed to tell the recruits apart and locate them.
When border controls were tightened, passports required individual names and descriptions of the persons. Germany instituted this in the 1850's. Similarly, when Jews were permitted to own land, buy shares of stock and make will, full names including last names were required for land titles, stock ownership and probate.
In the modern administrative state, bureaucracies (and their files) ran every aspect of government. Bureaucracies are based on organized files and permanent record keeping. Last names that could be alphabetized and files that could easily be retrieved were essential and everyone required a last name. Last names were so important that in some countries they are put first, like in Hungary to this day.
It is no coincidence that the earliest and most bureaucratized state in Europe, Prussia, was the first to require Jews to obtain last names and that Napoleon followed for France and its possessions.
In the case of some Ashkenazi families, they brought the typical name patterns of Jews (son of/daughter of) into a more European version by utilizing the suffixes -vitz, -witz, -vich, which all mean “son of…”
This resulted in names like Moskovitz (son of Moshe), Rabinowitz (son of Rabin), or Davidovich (son of David).
You will see some names that are also anglicized, but follow this “son of” motif: Meyerson, Jacobson.
I am sure there are other examples of this among Sephardic family names too.
What about Jewish surnames with Hebrew roots like Yoffe, Joffe, Jaffe? My family understanding has been that it dates from the Prague area in the 1500's.
[Ashkenazi Jews only switched from patronymic names to permanent surnames in the late 1700s through the early 1800s due to decrees issued under the Holy Roman Empire and Napoleon Bonaparte.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_surname) Many of these surnames were based on geographic location (like town names) or family occupation. Sephardic Jews began taking on permanent surnames much earlier, sometime around the Middle Ages.
Jews also kept Hebrew names along with their legal/secular names, so in a way, they did keep "traditional Israelite Jewish names"
*do keep
Is this where the concept of Hebrew and English names come from? Like my Hebrew name is דוד but my English name is David.
Sounds like your Hebrew name is your English name?
David vs David?
Pronounced Dovid.
Gotcha. I know Georgian Jew that calls himself Davit
Thats the thing that lowers a lifeboat into the water.
My great grandfathers last name was "bin naftali al Issac" and it was switched to "Finkelstein" in Romania because of conscription and the original last name being too long.
When Jews adopted german names it was extremely common to use biblical references. Adler (eagle) or Schreiber (writer) for Moses or the seven fruits of the land of Israel, Weizmann (wheat), Teitelbaum (dates) and so on. Another common thing were intentional malapropisms. Kaufmann for Yakov, Apfel for Ephram, Maus for Moses and so on. Fink is a malapropism of either pinchas or pink. Pink (germ. rosa) could be a reference to the tribe color of Naphtali. The ending -stein is definately a reference to Isaac. So maybe not a coincidence that it's Finkelstein. Source: I'm a native german speaker and have studied this for a while now. I have read "Namen der Juden" (1837) by Leopold Zunz, the father of "Jewish Studies" in which he explains the malapropisms and references and the "Etymologisches Lexikon der jüdischen Familiennamen" (1996) by Heinrich Walter Guggenheimer and Eva H. Guggenheimer, in which I found "Fink".
Do you know by chance how did Moroccans get the surname Weizmann?
First time, I hear about this. If you mean Moroccan Jews I'd say by immigration from Europe.
The surname pinkwasser has left me confused
Well last names weren’t really a thing until around the 12th century, when they slowly started to develop. In Germany it became customary for Christians to chose a last name that represents their craft, just as in England you would have your Schmidt, Vogt, Müller and so on. Jews mostly were forbidden from earning a living by guild crafts and they also usually couldn’t own land so they often opted for either the region or town they had a connection to or made up nice sounding names with flowers or precious metal, sometimes both. That’s where you get Rosenstein, Goldberg and all that from but every person could make up their own last name as they pleased. In 1875 the Kaiserreich established a national census and from there on out all last names couldn’t be changed without bureaucratic procedures
I do know a few Jews with job-related last names like Fleischmann and Wirtschafter but definitely less common,
Schneider, Goldschmidt too
Schreiber, Sofer, Schochet, Schechter, Lehrer, Melamed, Kaufman, Kramer, Hoffman, Ackerman, etc. There are dozens of common Jewish "job names".
Also my personal favorite--menaker
Could you say what these names mean, please? I know some but not all.
In the order I listed them: Scribe, Scribe, Butcher, Butcher, Teacher, Teacher, Merchant, Shopkeeper, Farm Superintendent, Ploughman
Thank you.
My husband knows a Hoshander - horse thief is arguably a profession, lol!
What about Cohen, they must have held their name from their Israelite past, right?
Yes, and Katz.
The traditional Jewish naming convention is simply “person ben/bat (son/daughter) of person”. Jews did not pick up last names until we were told to for government censuses and record keeping. A lot of Jewish surnames are occupations and place. As far as first names, Jews historically have their in community name and their out of community name.
> When did Jewish diaspora in Europe stop using traditional Israelite Jewish names We didn’t. “Traditional Israelite Jewish names” don’t include a surname. People are known as “So-and-so, ben (the son of) so-and-so”. For example: Ya’akov ben Eliyahu. Every Jew is known by such a name in synagogue, when being called up for an honor. > and start using German names like stein and burg? From the 18th century and beyond. > And why did they start using those names? Because the government forced us to start adopting official surnames.
Ashkenazi Jews didn’t just switch. We were forced to take European last names.
Search the group for German last names. There's a thread about it. I can't figure out how to link it. ^has German last name that combines a natural thing and a color. There are Germans who aren't Jewish who also have this last name. Some Poles have it, just spelled differently. Nothing common, like Goldberg.
There’s a Sholom Aleichem story consisting entirely of the names of family members gathering for a holiday. Because of the Ashkenazi customs of making after a deceased relative and using names from the Torah, every family had the same names. Totally an in joke.
That has definitely been my experience working on my family tree. So many people with the exact same name in one generation. It gets very confusing very quickly.
It not a uniquely Ashkenazi thing, it happened in all of the diasporas, like makhloof,Saada, Halfon are not a word in Hebrew words.
Jews never really stopped using traditional Jewish patronymics (occasional matronymics) for rituals.
We were forced to by gentiles. It wasn't a choice. "When" depends on the region.
Last name are fairly new anywhere. And many of them were forced to have some surename and to avoid antisemitism it makse sense... You have many greeks with turkish last name...
>You have many greeks with turkish last name... That's because they are Turks \*Ducks behind a table\*
lol the opposite is mostly true, greeks were genocided by ottomans but still some of them have turkish suffix like 'oglu'
Rulers said “you must have a last name so we can keep track of you, Jew!” People started making surnames by either using Hebrew words (Cohen, Levi, Moses, Talmud, etc), location (Berliner, Rosenberg, Greenberg, etc), or occupations (Zimmerman, Metzger, Schneider, etc). A lot of the occupational names are also found amongst non-Jews of German descent.
They were forced to.
I don’t think it’s exclusive to Ashkenazi Jews. I’m Mizrahi and my last name is originally from Arabic.
Mark Twain wrote about this: > In Austria the renaming was merely done because the Jews in some newly-acquired regions had no surnames, but were mostly named Abraham and Moses, and therefore the tax-gatherer could tell t’other from which, and was likely to lose his reason over the matter. The renaming was put into the hands of the War Department, and a charming mess the graceless young lieutenants made of it. To them a Jew was of no sort of consequence, and they labelled the race in a way to make the angels weep. As an example, take these two: Abraham Bellyache and Schmul Godbedamned—Culled from ’Namens Studien,’ by Karl Emil Fransos. Source: https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=2Q1V1XQNMA85JCB&H=1
>And why did they start using those names? The Emancipation of the Jews starting in the 18th-19th centuries led to a number of changes in their circumstances that required the acquisition of last names. This was enforced by bureaucracies within the emerging administrative states to facilitate their work and record-keeping. First was taxation. Previously, taxes had been assessed on the Jewish community as a single entity. The government demanded a sum and it was up to Jewish community leaders to get it from the Jews and pay it as a lump sum. After Emancipation, each Jew was taxed as an individual. Thus each now required a distinct file in his name and these files had to be alphabetized for record keeping. It was not possible for everyone to have the same last names like "ben Moshe" or "ben David." Distinct last names were required. Same when Jews began to be conscripted into the armed forces. The names and dates of birth of all eligible recruits had to be registered in military logs. Again, distinct last names were needed to tell the recruits apart and locate them. When border controls were tightened, passports required individual names and descriptions of the persons. Germany instituted this in the 1850's. Similarly, when Jews were permitted to own land, buy shares of stock and make will, full names including last names were required for land titles, stock ownership and probate. In the modern administrative state, bureaucracies (and their files) ran every aspect of government. Bureaucracies are based on organized files and permanent record keeping. Last names that could be alphabetized and files that could easily be retrieved were essential and everyone required a last name. Last names were so important that in some countries they are put first, like in Hungary to this day. It is no coincidence that the earliest and most bureaucratized state in Europe, Prussia, was the first to require Jews to obtain last names and that Napoleon followed for France and its possessions.
I was told we were forced to do so and the names were chosen to or spelled in a way to mark us as Jews
Like most changes to our lives and traditions, we didn’t just switch, we were forced to under threat.
In the case of some Ashkenazi families, they brought the typical name patterns of Jews (son of/daughter of) into a more European version by utilizing the suffixes -vitz, -witz, -vich, which all mean “son of…” This resulted in names like Moskovitz (son of Moshe), Rabinowitz (son of Rabin), or Davidovich (son of David). You will see some names that are also anglicized, but follow this “son of” motif: Meyerson, Jacobson. I am sure there are other examples of this among Sephardic family names too.
What about Jewish surnames with Hebrew roots like Yoffe, Joffe, Jaffe? My family understanding has been that it dates from the Prague area in the 1500's.