Many of my jewish friends have german-sounding last name. Why there is such tendency? When did it start?
2006-08-03 18:38:42 · 8 answers · asked by Snowflake 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Genealogy
I think they originated much earlier than WWII
I didn't understand the realtion to Chazarian. I looked it up on wikipedia. Don't understand. From what I read, it doesn't look like German is Chazarian. No best answer for me.
2006-08-04 22:22:44 · update #1
Till the 19th century jewish people had no family names. They often used patronymics like Isaac Ben Moshe (Isaac son of Moshe) for example. Then legislation in many central European countries required them to have a surname. So in Germany and Austria (which then extended far into Eastern Europe), where most of the European jews lived at that time, they were given German surnames by government officials. It depended on the mood of the official and the wealth of the people to be named whether this name just derived from the occupation (e.g. Kaufmann - merchant, Kohn/Cohen - priest, Kantor - singer), the origin (Frankfurter - from Frankfurt, Pinkas - from Pinsk), had a poetic meaning (Mandelbaum - almond tree, Morgenthau - morning dew, Rosenthal - valley of roses) or sometimes even was derogatory (Ochsenschwanz - oxtail).
2006-08-08 00:09:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some of the European Jewish surnames may have originated from the Khazarian . And hence spread across Europe. These being Ashkenazy Jews. These Jews existed approximately a thousand years before the modern State of Israel
2006-08-04 07:26:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It isn't a tendency. During WWII many Jews fled Europe, taking their European last names with them. Quite a few of those Jews came from Germany, as well as Poland, Russia, and other surrounding areas. It wasn't something that just randomly started out of nowhere. These families had these names for generations. Your friends' families probably settled in the same area around the same time.
2006-08-04 05:00:35 · answer #3 · answered by mihali 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jews were in all parts of Europe.. Some German, Slavic or Polish may sound Jewish but these people may be Christian.
2006-08-04 07:39:38 · answer #4 · answered by snowbunny 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My mother's father's surname is Germanic, but an ancient relative had been a part of the Polish court in the 1300s.
Many people didn't have surnames and took words to designate where they were from or what they did: Goldschmidt - goldsmith...
2006-08-07 18:12:56 · answer #5 · answered by lrad1952 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
German surnames originated in Germany !
2006-08-06 08:39:21 · answer #6 · answered by JBWPLGCSE 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
We all inherit our surnames. They start from day one.
2006-08-04 01:43:55 · answer #7 · answered by BazTheFraz 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
your avatar is great
2006-08-08 04:00:40 · answer #8 · answered by light feather 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋