Talk:Family name

Ashkenazi Surnames
I am removing this entire section for now. Almost everything in it is either inaccurate or flat-out false. To wit (comments in italics):

Until a few hundred years ago, Ashkenazim (Jews from Northern and Eastern Europe) Italy, too!

followed no tradition of surnames, Except for rabbis and their families

but used patronymics within the synagogue, and matronymics in other venues. There was no such distinction, and matronymics were rarely used.

For example, a boy named Joseph of a father named Isaac would be called to the Torah as Joseph ben Isaac. That same boy of a mother named Rachel would be known in business as Joseph ben Rachel. I'd love to see a source for this.

A male used the Hebrew word "ben" (son) and a female "bat" (daughter). Some males used the Aramaic "bar".

When northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularly in Austria, Prussia and Russia) were forced to adopt Germanic names. No. Certainly in Prussia, plenty of Jews adopted names derived from Hebrew, Latin, Polish, French or other languages.

Joseph II The Emperor of Austria, or some other Joseph?

issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city mayors were to choose the name for every Jewish family. For names related to precious metals and flowers a fee was gathered, ''Evidence of this fee-based naming practice would be most welcome. Hint: it's a myth.''

while free surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals. Many took Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g. Goldstein, 'Gold-smith')  'Goldstein' means 'Gold-stone.' 'Goldsmith' would be 'Goldschmidt.' 

, from their father (e.g. Jacobson), or from location (e.g. Berliner, Warszawski or Pinsker). ''The "Ekelnamen" myth deserves its own page, but should not be repeated on a page devoted to facts. The whole idea of "buying" names is undocumented and comes from a few unreliable sources.''

That makes Ashkenazi surnames quite similar to Scandinavian and especially Swedish ones. ''What does? The '-son' suffix, I suppose.''

In Prussia special military commissions were created to chose the names. ''True only in South Prussia and New East Prussia, which were Prussian only in 1795-1807. In the rest of Prussia, fixed surnames were adopted in 1791 (Silesia), 1812 (East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg) or later (other parts).''

It became common that the poorer Jews were forced to adopt derogatory, offensive or simply bizarre names. ''No, it didn't. Where's the evidence? Where are the derogatory, offensive or bizarre names?''

Among those created by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann were: ''Part of the myth. There's no evidence that he did anything of the sort.''

* Ochsenschwanz - Oxtail * Temperaturwechsel - Temperatureglitch No--means "temperature change."

* Kanalgeruch - Sewerstink * Singmirwas - Singmesomething

The Jews of Poland adopted names much earlier. ''Then why did the Prussians have these commissions? South Prussia was the heartland of Poland.''

Those who were adopted by a szlachta family usually changed the name to that of the family. How many Jews were adopted by szlachta???

Christened Jews usually adopted either a common Polish name or a name created after the month of their baptism (that's why many Frankists adopted the name Majewski - after the month of May in 1759). All of which has nothing to do with Jewish surnames.

Both the given names and surnames of Ashkenazim today may be completely European in origin, though many will also posess a traditional Hebrew name for use only in the synagogue. Or they may possess a traditional non-Hebrew name, such as Kalonymus or Alexander (Greek), Mordechai (Persian), etc.

I think a link to a few pages over at Wikipedia would be far more worthwhile than the above.Silesius 16:51, 31 March 2007 (UTC)