The surname Sherman?

Question

I like studying the origins of surnames and all names...I know Sherman is British, but I also heard it was Jewish, right?
How many Jews than non-Jews have this name?
It is possible for non-Jews to have this name as well, right? Those who are British, but aren't Jewish?
And I noticed that this name ends in "man" like most Jewish names.

Really? You never heard of anyone? hmm....

Thanks for that info, Shirley. In my book Jewish names and surnames fall under "Hebrew" category and it says most of these are patronymic, but Sherman's under the "English category.

Answer 1

I believe it's possible for anyone to have any type of a surname. But I have never heard of Sherman as a Jewish surname.

Answer 2

Orthodox and Conservative Judaism consider a person a Jew by the mother not the father. The womb they arrived in this world from is what makes them a Jew.

They state they get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father and if they don't have a Jewish father they belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on their mother's side of the family.

If a Jewish male marries a non Jewish woman, the only way their children can be considered Jewish is for her to convert to Judaism. If she doesn't the only way their children can be considered Jew by the Orthodox and Conservative is for them to convert to Judaism.

However, if a Jewish woman marries a non Jewish male, their children will be considered Jewish even though the father doesn't convert.

Reform Jews do not view the definition of a Jew the same way.

Every Sherman I have known were not Jews.

Also as far as names. I believe a lot of names in the U. S. are considered Jewish because a large portion of the immigrants to this country that had certain names were Jewish while back in their home countries those names were held by Jews and non Jews alike.

Answer 3

www.ancestry.com/facts/Sherman-name-meaning.ashx

Sherman
English: occupational name for a sheepshearer or someone who used shears to trim the surface of finished cloth and remove excess nap, from Middle English shereman ‘shearer’.
Americanized spelling of German Schuermann.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, from Yiddish sher ‘scissors’ + man ‘man’.