do you have a Jewish surname in your family tree if so you will want to know its origin
and meaning knowing this allows you to know the story of this branch of
your family tree join me today on the ancestral findings podcast and
I'll talk about what you need to know about your ancestral Jewish surname
if you have Eastern European or Middle Eastern ancestry it is pretty likely that you will at some
point come across a Jewish surname in your family tree knowing the meanings of these surnames will
help you understand this branch of your family better what their lives were like maybe a little
bit about what their personalities were like and about the Jewish experience in general it is just
as much a part of your family history as any other branches and therefore important for a genealogist
to know here is what you need to know about Jewish surnames and their meanings the history
of the Jewish people is a long and complex one filled with a lot of turmoil punctuated by brief
periods of peace and tranquility it also goes back thousands of years according to their own
oral history which later became the Old Testament and Torah they began with Abraham around four to
five thousand years ago in the Middle East from there they made their way through Isaac Jacob
Joseph slavery in Egypt under the Pharaohs Moses the Promised Land the Babylonian exile the siege
of Jerusalem occupation by the Romans and the destruction of their most holy temple after the
destruction of the temple by the Romans which was actually the second temple destruction the Jewish
people had endured in Jerusalem the twelve tribes of Israel which comprised the Jewish people were
dispersed from the promised land after generations of occupation the Romans sent them away from their
ancestral land after this they roamed the world for a time in what was known as the great diaspora
the Jewish people ended up moving out around the world this was around the 1st and 2nd century AD
after a thousand or so years of wandering most of the Jewish people had settled into either Eastern
Europe or the Iberian Peninsula those in Eastern Europe lived in what is now Germany Poland and
Austria those on the Iberian Peninsula lived in what is now Portugal in Spain those in Eastern
Europe became known as Eskenazi and those on the Iberian Peninsula became known as Sephardic astana
Z and Sephardic Jewish people didn't have much to do with each other and their cultural traditions
diverged widely because of this when surnames came into use in Europe the surnames of the two
different Jewish groups were quite dissimilar from each other early in their history before
coming to Europe surnames were not necessary among the Jewish people and it was the same with
most ancient cultures with a few exceptions when surnames did become necessary due to increasing
populations in the cities and people moving to places far from their ancestral village in search
of economic opportunities Jewish people often used patronymic surnames to show pride in their
parentage and religious heritage however some Jewish families did this even before the common
adoption of surnames in Europe when they were still wandering the world after the great diaspora
and some of these early patronymic surnames are still being used today been followed by the name
of the father or bat followed by the name of the father meant son of or daughter of respectively
they were the earliest Jewish surnames and even predated the use of European surnames in some
Jewish families later those in the Jewish culture who held religious offices adopted surnames on
occasion though not always the surnames Cohen and Levi are the two most common Jewish surnames that
denote a religious or priestly lineage common variations of these names are con cuts con con
Amon Kahane Kaplan lee hwon lee Winson levy toss Lovett and Levine Astana G Jewish people
typically adopted surnames similar or identical to the ones their Gentile neighbors in in Europe
we're using when surnames came into fashion that is why you will find many Ashkenazi Jewish
surnames that denote occupations or geographical locations just like other people living in this
area at the time used others used descriptive surnames which was a pre-christian tradition
in parts of the ancient world that occasionally used surnames common Ashkenazi surnames include
Goldberg describing people from the town of gold in medieval Poland shinai der meaning tailor which
was an occupation and Geller which is Yiddish for someone with blond hair Ashkenazi Jewish
people also adopted surnames in the Middle Ages based on the names of precious stones which was
not a common practice among other European ethnic and cultural groups that is why Jewish surnames
like Goldman Weiss gold and green are so common today as for the Sephardic Jewish people they
mostly adopted Spanish surnames in order to escape persecution during the Spanish Inquisition King
furna dad and Queen Isabella of Spain declared in 1492 that all Sephardic Jewish people had
to register with the crown before being expelled from the country while many chose to register and
go others preferred to stay and adopted Spanish surnames to blend in with the local population
those who left usually went to North Africa where they adopted Turkish and Arabic surnames also to
blend in with the locals and avoid persecution as persecution of the Jewish people was going on
there two other common Jewish surnames dating from both ancient and medieval times include
Abraham's deriving from Abraham the patriarch of the Jewish people blough an Ashkenazi name
it means blue in German Horowitz referring to someone from the community of Horovitz in the
Czech Republic liebe meaning lion this refers to someone who had an ancestor who was brave or
strong to an unusual degree Roth meaning red it is used to describe someone's complexion of hair when
you know the meaning of your Jewish surnames you will have a much better understanding of
your ancestry and ancestors whether Ashkenazi Sephardic or a different group entirely such
as the small group of Jewish Ethiopians the surname tells the story of the family
going back to medieval or even ancient times its meaning is well worth knowing to any genealogist
a number of women disguised themselves as men to serve in the American Revolution and
the Civil War however few of them were well known to the public after the war while her
story was a popular one into the early 20th century it has been lost with time it is time
to bring it to light once more join me next time on the ancestral findings podcast and
I'll share with you her remarkable story thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on
the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com