When did the ashkenazi jews start taking on eurpoean surnames (ie german, russian, english)????

Question

For example names like Stein can be German more than jewish, meaning the jews adopted it from the germans.

Answer 1

In the Austrian-Hungarian Empire during the late 19th century Jewish citizens were forced to change their names, and many changed their names to Hungarian or German names to escape anti-semitism or to better fit in. Some translated their name into German or Hungarian, others picked a German or Hungarian name that had also a meaning in Yiddish or Hebrew. This had happened before at the end of the 18th century (partial emancipation of the Jews under the Habsburger Joseph II), and was repeated after the Holocaust (further communist persecution of Jews under the influence of Stalin's "Doctors' plot").

I guess a similar thing happened in Russia during the pogroms, in England during persecutions and at time of immigration or upward social mobility, and in the USA at Ellis Island where they changed their name to something simpler, or English, or had their name changed for them. Some changed their names later to fit in. Remember that in USA Jews were banned from many institutions, organizations and from most country clubs till the late 50's!