Jewish surnames reflect many languages, migrations, governments, and communities. Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Italian, and other Jewish families did not all acquire hereditary surnames at the same time or in the same way. A name may be Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Slavic, or local to another place where a family lived.
Jewish surname in Family Research
Traditional Hebrew naming uses ben, “son of,” and bat, “daughter of,” as part of a personal identification. These forms are not always hereditary family surnames. In some communities a patronymic remained important even after a civil surname became fixed.
Cohen and Levi
Cohen, from Hebrew kohen, “priest,” is traditionally associated with priestly status. Levi is traditionally associated with the tribe of Levi. Spellings such as Cohn, Kohn, Kahn, Kahane, Levine, Lewin, Lewinson, Levitas, and Levitt may be related to Cohen or Levi in some family lines, but several also have other possible origins. Spelling alone cannot prove priestly or Levitical descent.
Katz is often an acronym formed from the Hebrew phrase kohen tsedek, “righteous priest.” It is not merely another spelling of Cohen, and not every Katz family can be assumed to have the same origin. Kaplan literally relates to a chaplain in several European languages; in some Ashkenazi traditions it was associated with kohen, but it should not be treated as a direct translation or universal variant. Kahneman and similar names also require line-specific research.
Ashkenazi surnames
Many Ashkenazi families were required to adopt fixed civil surnames in parts of Central and Eastern Europe during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Others had stable family names earlier. The results include patronymics, occupations, places, house signs, translations, nicknames, and ornamental names.
Goldberg is German or Yiddish for “gold mountain.” Depending on the family it may be ornamental or connected with a place; it does not mean “people from a Polish town called Gold.” Schneider means “tailor.” Geller may be connected with a German or Yiddish word for “yellow” and could have begun as a nickname, but individual origins vary. Goldman is “gold man,” Weiss is “white,” Blau is “blue,” and names such as Gold and Green use color or material words. They are not all names of precious stones.
Abrams is a patronymic form connected with the personal name Abraham. Horowitz and Horovitz are associated with Hořovice in Bohemia. Lieb or Löb may come from a personal name connected with Yiddish or German words for “lion” or “beloved,” depending on the form and family. Roth means “red” in German and may have referred to hair, complexion, a house sign, or a place. None of these meanings proves that a particular ancestor had the literal trait.
Sephardic surnames
Sephardic families used many Iberian, Hebrew, Arabic, and local surnames before and after the expulsions from Spain and Portugal. Some converts and descendants of converts bore ordinary Spanish or Portuguese names, but an Iberian surname alone does not prove hidden Jewish ancestry. Pérez, for example, is an established Spanish patronymic from Pero or Pedro and also resembles the biblical name Peretz; a specific family’s identity must be established from records, not from the spelling alone.
A surname can suggest a language, location, or naming tradition, but it cannot establish whether a person was Jewish. Confirm the conclusion with vital, religious, census, immigration, notarial, and community records from the relevant place and time.
Learn More
Continue with Italian Surnames: Their History and Meaning, or explore our free genealogy eBooks. For further research, see JewishGen surname research.
