Hebraization of surnames
Encyclopedia
The Hebraization of surnames (also spelled Hebraicization) is the process of adopting Hebrew family name
s (also called surname
s or last name
s).
Many immigrants
to modern Israel
changed their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of galuti (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages. This phenomenon was especially common among Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to Israel, because most of their names were taken later and some were imposed by the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Very few Hebrew surnames exist, such as Cohen ('priest') and Levi
(one of the tribes of Israel). Names ending with -berg, -stein or -man are often thought of as Jewish, but are of German
origin, while suffixes such as -sky and -vitz are Slavic
. Similarly, a few Hebrew surnames, such as Katz
, Bogoraz
and Pak are in fact Hebrew acronyms
, even though they sound and are often perceived as being of foreign origin (in these cases, from German, Russian
and Korean
, respectively).
The Hebraization of surnames is a unique phenomenon to the Hebrew language. This process began as early as the days of the First
and Second
Aliyot and continued after the establishment of the State of Israel. The widespread trend towards hebraicization of surnames in the days of the Yishuv
and immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel was based on the claim that a Hebrew name provided a feeling of belonging to the new state. There was also the wish to distance from the lost and dead past, and from the forced imposition of foreign (e.g. German) names in the previous centuries.
(the first to return to Eretz Yisrael — the Land of Israel
), there was a strong feeling of sh'lilat ha'gola (Hebrew: שלילת הגולה "negation of the diaspora/Exile"), which often included the exchange of Diaspora
surnames (which some regarded as "slave names") for purely Hebrew ones. Part of the Zionist movement, was not only Aliyah
(immigration to Israel) it was also wanting to create an image of an Eretz-Yisraeli Jew that would be different than the Yiddish speaking, shtetl
living, and perceived weak Diaspora
Jew, and these things were a significant part of the people of the First
and Second
Aliyot (from the 1880s onwards) and they Hebraized their surnames. By Hebraizing the name, the foreign last name could be cast aside.
, in 1944, the Zionist leadership and the National Council
proclaimed it the "Year of naturalization and the Hebrew name". Because of that, a special committee under the chairmanship of Mordechai Nemzabi, the Jewish Agency adviser matters of civilian defense, published a booklet which contained guidelines on the creation on new Hebrew surnames.
Changing a foreign surname to Hebrew:
First names as surnames:
Change of names by names of places, plants or sites in Eretz Yisrael:
David ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel
was very committed to the use of the Hebrew language (he changed his surname from Gryn to Ben Gurion) tried to convince as many people to change their surnames into 'real' Hebrew ones. On the signing of Declaration of Independence, Ben-Gurion got Herzl Rosenblum
to sign it Herzl Vardi, his pen name
(and later he changed it to his legal name), as Ben-Gurion wanted more Hebrew names on the document. Nine more of the signatories of the document would then go on to Hebraize their name as well.
Ben-Gurion, in an order to the IDF
soldiers he wrote, "It is desirable that every commanding officer (from Squadron Commander to Chief of Staff
) should change his surname, whether German, English, Slavic
, French
or foreign in general, to a Hebrew surname, in order to be a role model for his soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces must be Hebrew in spirit, vision, and in all internal and external expressions."
A binding order of the same issue was issued to the officials of the state in 1950, and particularly to those who represented the State abroad. A "Committee for Hebrew Names" was established to supervise the implementation of the order, whose task was to assist and advise the choice of a Hebrew name.
and also after the establishment of the State of Israel.
, historian and second President of the State of Israel. He was born in Ukraine
on 24 November 1884. He studied law in Istanbul together with David Ben Gurion. In 1906 he attended the founding conference of the Poalei Zion and in 1907 he settled in the Land of Israel. He belonged to the founders of the Ahdut ha-Avodah Party, was active in the Haganah
, a member of the National Council
, and signed the Declaration of Independence. Ben Zvi died in 1963. Ben Zvi wrote:
.
One of the opponents of the Hebraization of surnames was Moses Calvary, a writer and teacher. Born in Germany 1883, he received a traditional, general, and rabbinical education. He was a member of Ahdut Ha'avodah, an educator in the Meir Shafia youth village, principal of the Hebrew Gymnasium (High School) in Jerusalem, and educator in the "Ahava" youth village in Kiryat Bialik. He wrote articles in Hebrew and German. Moses Calvary died in 1944.
Some people were emotically attached to their Diaspora last name, for reasons such as it having noble origins (Hebrew: יִחוּס Yichus), or for a desire to continue to identify with their ethnic group. There is story of an Israeli diplomat who told David Ben-Gurion
, "I will change my name if you can find me one non-Jew named Lifshitz." Others had names that were entirely Hebrew to begin with.
The disagreement about the Hebraization of surnames continued. Many people changed their family names, such as Yigael Sukennik who changed his name to Yigael Yadin
, and Levi Shkolnik who changed it to Levi Eshkol
. Others preserved their foreign surname, such as Chaim Weizmann
, and Shimon Agranat
.
In addition, as tensions between different Jewish ethnic groups arose, some wanted to dissidentify with a "stigmatized" ethnic group or to merge into a "collective Israeli identity" and therefore created a desire to Hebraize.
There is also a trend to return to one's roots and preserve traditions unique to each ethnic group. As part of the desire of those who want to return to their roots, there are people who re-adopt the name their family previously abandoned for the sake of "Israeliness", such as Israeli writer Yitzhak Orpaz who restored his family's original family name of "Averbuch".
The large wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union
since the 1990's clearly had the effect of weakening the practice of Hebraizing names - as part of the marked general tendency of these immigrants to cling to their specific Russian linguistic and cultural identity. A consocious example is the current (as of late 2010) Israeli Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov
. Though an outspoken Israeli nationalist on other issues, Misezhnikov did not feel impelled to change his clearly Slavic surname (nor his equally Slavic first name), and there was no public pressure on him to do so - as there would have been on an Israeli minister during the country's first decades.
Direct translations:
Jewish patronyms:
Others were direct translations of patronymic
names.
Toponyms:
Other names were translated from toponyms.
name, Jewish historical figure, or Hebrew word with a positive meaning, though sometimes their phonetic similarity was far-fetched.
).
In some cases, a false cognate
could satisfy both options at once.
(priesthood) such as (ex. Cohen, Kohn, Kaplan, Sacerdoti, Katz, Azoulai, etc...). Other times it indicated Levite decent such as Levi, Levy, Weil (anagram
), and Segal (Hebrew acronym). Other times it was synagogue or Jewish community functions such as Gabbai, Chazan, or Rabin.
Others kept their name for its yichus, which gave the bearer more reason not to Hebraize it. For example, Horowitz (famous rabbinical dynasty), Rothschild (famous Jewish banking dynasty
), Einstein (famous bearer
), or Shaltiel (ancient Sephardic
family tracing its origins to King David—and it's already Hebrew
).
Others kept their name but the name underwent some mutation because they contained sounds that do not exist in Hebrew. Examples include Lando (from "Landau"), and Glober (from "Glauber").
Other "Diaspora" Jewish names are Hebrew to begin with such as Ashkenazi, Yerushalmi, corruptions of Hebrew words, such as Heifetz (from Chafetz), Hebrew acronyms, such as Shalit (from "Sheyihye le'orekh yamim tovim"), or of Aramaic origin, such as Kahane, or Raban.
Category:Israeli surnames
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
s (also called surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
s or last name
Last Name
"Last Name" is the title of a song composed by country singer Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey and Luke Laird. It is the third single from Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride. It was released in the United States on April 7, 2008, by which point the song had already charted...
s).
Many immigrants
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
to modern Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
changed their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of galuti (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages. This phenomenon was especially common among Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to Israel, because most of their names were taken later and some were imposed by the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Very few Hebrew surnames exist, such as Cohen ('priest') and Levi
Levi
Levi/Levy was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi ; however Peake's commentary suggests this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite...
(one of the tribes of Israel). Names ending with -berg, -stein or -man are often thought of as Jewish, but are of German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
origin, while suffixes such as -sky and -vitz are Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
. Similarly, a few Hebrew surnames, such as Katz
Katz (name)
Katz is a common German surname. It is also one of the oldest and most common Ashkenazi Jewish surnames.Germans with the last name Katz may originate in the Rhine River region of Germany, where the Katz Castle is located...
, Bogoraz
Bogoraz
Bogoraz is a surname of Jewish origin which is an acronym of "Ben ha-rav Zalman" . It may refer to:*Vladimir Bogoraz*Larisa Bogoraz...
and Pak are in fact Hebrew acronyms
Acronym and initialism
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
, even though they sound and are often perceived as being of foreign origin (in these cases, from German, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, respectively).
The Hebraization of surnames is a unique phenomenon to the Hebrew language. This process began as early as the days of the First
First Aliyah
The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated to Ottoman Syria during the...
and Second
Second Aliyah
The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen....
Aliyot and continued after the establishment of the State of Israel. The widespread trend towards hebraicization of surnames in the days of the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
and immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel was based on the claim that a Hebrew name provided a feeling of belonging to the new state. There was also the wish to distance from the lost and dead past, and from the forced imposition of foreign (e.g. German) names in the previous centuries.
In the Yishuv
Among the YishuvYishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
(the first to return to Eretz Yisrael — the Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
), there was a strong feeling of sh'lilat ha'gola (Hebrew: שלילת הגולה "negation of the diaspora/Exile"), which often included the exchange of Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
surnames (which some regarded as "slave names") for purely Hebrew ones. Part of the Zionist movement, was not only Aliyah
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
(immigration to Israel) it was also wanting to create an image of an Eretz-Yisraeli Jew that would be different than the Yiddish speaking, shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
living, and perceived weak Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
Jew, and these things were a significant part of the people of the First
First Aliyah
The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated to Ottoman Syria during the...
and Second
Second Aliyah
The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen....
Aliyot (from the 1880s onwards) and they Hebraized their surnames. By Hebraizing the name, the foreign last name could be cast aside.
Jewish Agency booklet
This process started with individuals like Eliezer ben Yehuda (Perelman) and was adopted by the New Yishuv. Before the foundation of the State of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, in 1944, the Zionist leadership and the National Council
National Council
-Conservation:* National Council for Science and the Environment, a US-based non-profit organization which has a mission to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking...
proclaimed it the "Year of naturalization and the Hebrew name". Because of that, a special committee under the chairmanship of Mordechai Nemzabi, the Jewish Agency adviser matters of civilian defense, published a booklet which contained guidelines on the creation on new Hebrew surnames.
Changing a foreign surname to Hebrew:
- Change of vocalization: Leib becomes Lev
- Change of consonants: Borg becomes Barak
- Shortening by omitting the ending: Rosenberg becomes Rosen
- Shortening a name with a Hebrew meaning, by omitting the foreign suffix: Yakobovitch (Jacobowitz, Jacobowicz) becomes Ya'akovi
- Translating the foreign name into Hebrew according to the meaning: Abramovich (Abramowicz, Abramowitz) becomes Ben Avraham
First names as surnames:
- Name of a father or mother who were murdered during the ShoahShoahShoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
, thus: Bat Miriam, Ben Moshe, Devorin - Son or daughter who fell in battle: Avinoam
- Brother or sister who were killed or fell: Achimeir
- Beloved or admired biblicalTanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
figure: ShaulSaul-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, DavidDavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
i
Change of names by names of places, plants or sites in Eretz Yisrael:
- Places or sites: Hermoni, Eilat, GiladGileadIn the Bible "Gilead" means hill of testimony or mound of witness, , a mountainous region east of the Jordan River, situated in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It is also referred to by the Aramaic name Yegar-Sahadutha, which carries the same meaning as the Hebrew . From its mountainous character...
- Plants, especially plants of the Land of IsraelLand of IsraelThe Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
: Eshel ("orchard", "garden"), Rotem ("desert broomBroom (shrub)Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the three genera Chamaecytisus, Cytisus and Genista, but also in many other small genera . All genera in this group are from the tribe Genisteae...
")
After the Establishment of the State
After the Establishment of the State of Israel, there was still the attitude that the hebraicization of family names should continue, in order to get rid of names with a Diaspora sound.David ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
was very committed to the use of the Hebrew language (he changed his surname from Gryn to Ben Gurion) tried to convince as many people to change their surnames into 'real' Hebrew ones. On the signing of Declaration of Independence, Ben-Gurion got Herzl Rosenblum
Herzl Rosenblum
Dr Herzl Rosenblum was an Israeli journalist and politician. A signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence, he worked as editor of Yedioth Ahronoth for more than 35 years.-Biography:...
to sign it Herzl Vardi, his pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
(and later he changed it to his legal name), as Ben-Gurion wanted more Hebrew names on the document. Nine more of the signatories of the document would then go on to Hebraize their name as well.
Ben-Gurion, in an order to the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
soldiers he wrote, "It is desirable that every commanding officer (from Squadron Commander to Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
) should change his surname, whether German, English, Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
or foreign in general, to a Hebrew surname, in order to be a role model for his soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces must be Hebrew in spirit, vision, and in all internal and external expressions."
A binding order of the same issue was issued to the officials of the state in 1950, and particularly to those who represented the State abroad. A "Committee for Hebrew Names" was established to supervise the implementation of the order, whose task was to assist and advise the choice of a Hebrew name.
Supporters and Opponents
The Hebraization of surnames provoked sharp controversy in the days of the YishuvYishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
and also after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Supporters
Among the most significant supporters was Yitzhak Ben Zvi (Shimshelevich), leader of the Labor movementLabor (Israel)
The Israeli Labor Party , commonly known as HaAvoda , is a social-democratic and labour Zionist political party in Israel. The party is an observer member of both Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. The Israeli Labor Party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai,...
, historian and second President of the State of Israel. He was born in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
on 24 November 1884. He studied law in Istanbul together with David Ben Gurion. In 1906 he attended the founding conference of the Poalei Zion and in 1907 he settled in the Land of Israel. He belonged to the founders of the Ahdut ha-Avodah Party, was active in the Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
, a member of the National Council
National Council
-Conservation:* National Council for Science and the Environment, a US-based non-profit organization which has a mission to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking...
, and signed the Declaration of Independence. Ben Zvi died in 1963. Ben Zvi wrote:
Opponents
Alongside the enthusiastic supporters and those who encouraged the Jews who lived in the Land of Israel to change their family name into a Hebrew one were also opponents of this process who saw it as an act of erasing part of Jewish historyJewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
.
One of the opponents of the Hebraization of surnames was Moses Calvary, a writer and teacher. Born in Germany 1883, he received a traditional, general, and rabbinical education. He was a member of Ahdut Ha'avodah, an educator in the Meir Shafia youth village, principal of the Hebrew Gymnasium (High School) in Jerusalem, and educator in the "Ahava" youth village in Kiryat Bialik. He wrote articles in Hebrew and German. Moses Calvary died in 1944.
Some people were emotically attached to their Diaspora last name, for reasons such as it having noble origins (Hebrew: יִחוּס Yichus), or for a desire to continue to identify with their ethnic group. There is story of an Israeli diplomat who told David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, "I will change my name if you can find me one non-Jew named Lifshitz." Others had names that were entirely Hebrew to begin with.
The disagreement about the Hebraization of surnames continued. Many people changed their family names, such as Yigael Sukennik who changed his name to Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin on 21 March 1917, died 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life and military career:...
, and Levi Shkolnik who changed it to Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
. Others preserved their foreign surname, such as Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952....
, and Shimon Agranat
Shimon Agranat
Shimon Agranat was the President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1965 until 1976.-Biography:Agranat was born to a Zionist family in Louisville, Kentucky in 1906. He attended the University of Chicago and later its law school. Agranat emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1930 and settled in...
.
Later
This trend has moderated with time, after the establishment of the State and the with Hebrew becoming an everyday language. However, even today, people continue to Hebraize their surname, especially those serving in the IDF and Israel's diplomatic missions, representing the State of Israel.In addition, as tensions between different Jewish ethnic groups arose, some wanted to dissidentify with a "stigmatized" ethnic group or to merge into a "collective Israeli identity" and therefore created a desire to Hebraize.
There is also a trend to return to one's roots and preserve traditions unique to each ethnic group. As part of the desire of those who want to return to their roots, there are people who re-adopt the name their family previously abandoned for the sake of "Israeliness", such as Israeli writer Yitzhak Orpaz who restored his family's original family name of "Averbuch".
The large wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
since the 1990's clearly had the effect of weakening the practice of Hebraizing names - as part of the marked general tendency of these immigrants to cling to their specific Russian linguistic and cultural identity. A consocious example is the current (as of late 2010) Israeli Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov
Stas Misezhnikov
Stas Misezhnikov is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu and as the country's Minister of Tourism.-Biography:...
. Though an outspoken Israeli nationalist on other issues, Misezhnikov did not feel impelled to change his clearly Slavic surname (nor his equally Slavic first name), and there was no public pressure on him to do so - as there would have been on an Israeli minister during the country's first decades.
Translations
Some names were directly translated from its Diaspora name.Direct translations:
| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Goldberg Goldberg - People :* Goldberg , people with the surname Goldberg* Whoopi Goldberg, Actress, Comedienne* Bill Goldberg, Former Professional Wrestler- Entertainment :... |
Har-Paz |
| Schlossberg Schlossberg The term Schlossberg or Schloßberg may refer to:*Schloßberg, Austria, a town in the district of Leibnitz in Styria*Schlossberg , a tree covered hill in the area of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau.... |
Har-Segor |
| Steinberg Steinberg Steinberg GmbH is a German musical software and equipment company based in Hamburg. It mainly produces music recording, arranging and editing software as used in digital audio workstations and VSTi software synthesizers.- History :... |
Har-Even |
| Rosenstein | Even-Shoshan |
| Herbst | Stavi |
| Silver(man) | Caspi |
Jewish patronyms:
Others were direct translations of patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
names.
| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Meyerson Meyerson - People :* Charlie Meyerson, American journalist* Émile Meyerson, Polish-born French chemist and philosopher of science* Golda Meyerson, American-born Israeli politician, born Golda Mabovitch, married Morris Meyerson, Hebraicized their last name to Meir... |
Ben-Meir (means: son of Meir) |
| Mendelssohn | Ben-Menachem (means: son of Menachem) (Yiddish diminutive Diminutive In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment... : Mendel) |
| Davidson Davidson Davidson is the name of:* Davidson * Davidson Media Group* Davidson Seamount, undersea mountain southwest of Monterey, California, USA* Tyler Davidson Fountain, monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA... |
Ben-David |
Toponyms:
Other names were translated from toponyms.
| Old | New | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Wilner | Vilna'i | both mean "from Wilna" |
| Deutsch(er) (means: German in German) | Ashkenazi (means: German in Medieval Hebrew Medieval Hebrew Medieval Hebrew has many features that distinguish it from older forms of Hebrew. These affect grammar, syntax, sentence structure, and also include a wide variety of new lexical items, which are usually based on older forms.... ) |
Negation
Other names were the negation of so-called "Ekelnamen" (deliberately insulting or demeaning last names forced upon ancestors by non Jewish officials).| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Luegner (means: liar) | Amiti (means: truthful) |
| Ausubel (means: from garbage) | Ben-Tov (means: son of good) |
| Greif (means: "claw", indicating greed and/or miserliness) | Nadiv (means: benefactor) |
Phonetic similarity
Other names were Hebraized on their similar sounding to a Biblical placename, Jewish historical figure, or Hebrew word with a positive meaning, though sometimes their phonetic similarity was far-fetched.
| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Meyerson | Meir (means: brilliant; or named for Rabbi Meir Rabbi Meir Rabbi Meir or Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna. He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the fourth generation . According to legend , his father was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero who had converted to Judaism. His wife Bruriah is... ) |
| Gruen | Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946... (historical figure) |
| Epstein | Eilat (place name) |
| Neumann | Ne'eman (means: faithful) |
| Kalb | Gilboa (place name) |
| Berkovitz | Barak (means: lightning) |
| Brotzlewsky | Bar Lev (means: son of Lev) |
Choice between translation and phonetic similarity
Sometimes, there were prevalent options between either translating it, or choosing a name based on similar sound (homophoneHomophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
).
| Old | Direct translation choice | Phonetic similarity choice |
|---|---|---|
| Rosen | Shoshani, Vardi (means: rose) | Rozen (means: count) |
| Shkolnik | Lamdan (means: yeshiva student) | Eshkol (means: cluster of grapes) |
| Feld | Sadeh (means: field) | Peled (means: steel) |
In some cases, a false cognate
False cognate
False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not....
could satisfy both options at once.
| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Loewe | Lavi (means: lion) |
| Lempel (means: little lamp) | Lapid (means: torch) |
New
Others chose completely newly chosen names, many times symbolic in nature.| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ben-Artzi | means "son of my land" |
| Nir | means "ploughed field" as dug by a farmer |
Kept their name
Others kept their name for several reasons. Sometimes, the reason it was kept was because of its religious nature. For examples, names connected with the KohenKohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
(priesthood) such as (ex. Cohen, Kohn, Kaplan, Sacerdoti, Katz, Azoulai, etc...). Other times it indicated Levite decent such as Levi, Levy, Weil (anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
), and Segal (Hebrew acronym). Other times it was synagogue or Jewish community functions such as Gabbai, Chazan, or Rabin.
Others kept their name for its yichus, which gave the bearer more reason not to Hebraize it. For example, Horowitz (famous rabbinical dynasty), Rothschild (famous Jewish banking dynasty
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
), Einstein (famous bearer
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
), or Shaltiel (ancient Sephardic
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
family tracing its origins to King David—and it's already Hebrew
Shealtiel
Shealtiel or Greek-derived variant Salathiel was the son of Jeconiah, king of Judah. The Gospels also list Shealtiel as the son of Jeconiah, while lists him as the son of an otherwise unknown man named Neri...
).
Others kept their name but the name underwent some mutation because they contained sounds that do not exist in Hebrew. Examples include Lando (from "Landau"), and Glober (from "Glauber").
Other "Diaspora" Jewish names are Hebrew to begin with such as Ashkenazi, Yerushalmi, corruptions of Hebrew words, such as Heifetz (from Chafetz), Hebrew acronyms, such as Shalit (from "Sheyihye le'orekh yamim tovim"), or of Aramaic origin, such as Kahane, or Raban.
See also
- Jewish surnameJewish surnameJews have historically used Hebrew patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by either ben- or bat- , and then the father's name....
- Jewish name
- Hebrew nameHebrew nameHebrew names are names that have a Hebrew language origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible. They are mostly used by people living in Jewish or Christian parts of the world, but some are also adapted to the Islamic world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qur'an. When...
Category:Israeli surnames