What's In a Name If You Are Jewish

Other than aristocrats and wealthy people, Jews did not get surnames in Eastern Europe until the Napoleon years of the early 19th century.

Most of the Jews from countries captured by Napoleon, Russia, Poland, and Germany were ordered to get surnames for tax purposes.

After Napoleon's defeat, many Jews dropped these names and returned to "son of" names such as: MENDELSOHN, JACOBSON, LEVINSON, etc.

During the so called Emancipation, Jews we re once more ordered to take surnames. In Austria, The Emperor Joseph made Jews take last names in the late 1700s, Poland in 1821 and Russia in 1844. It's probable that some of our families have had last names for 175 years or less.

In France and the Anglo Saxon countries surnames went back to the 16th century. Also, Sephardic Jews had surnames stretching back centuries.

Spain prior to Ferdinand and Isabella was a golden spot for Jews. They were expelled by Isabella in the same year that Columbus left for America.

Most of the earliest American Jews were Sephardic, of Spanish derivation.

In general, there were five types of names (people had to pay for their choice of names; the poor had assigned names):

1-- Names that were descriptive of the head of household:
Examples:
HOCH (tall) ,
KLEIN (small),
COHEN (rabbi ),
BURGER (village dweller)
SHEIN (good looking),
LEVI (temple singer),
GROSS (large),
SCHWARTZ (dark or black)
WEISS (white)
KURTZ (short)

2 -- Names describing occupations:
Examples:
HOLTZ (wood)
HOLTZKNOCKER (wood chopper),
GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith ),
SCHNEIDER (tailor),
KREIGSMAN (warrior),
EISEN (ir on),
FISCHER (fish)
STARK (strong)

3-- Names from city of residence:
Examples:
BERLIN,
FRANKFURTER,
DANZIGER,
OPPENHEIMER,
DEUTSCH (German)
POLLACK (Polish),
BRESLAU,
MANNHEIM,
CRACOW,
WARSHAW
VAN PRAAG (Prague)
NEDE RLAN DER (Holland)

4 -- Miscellaneous names:
Examples:
GLUCK (luck),
ROSEN (roses),
ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf),
ROSENBERG (rosehill),
ROTH (red),
DIAMOND,
KOENIG (king),
KOENIGSBERG (king's mountain),
SPIELMAN (player),
LIEBER (dear),
BERG (hill or mo untain),
WASSER ( water),
KIRSCH (church),
SHULL (synagogue)
STEIN (stone).
5-- Descriptive names:
Examples:
PLOTZ (burst),
KLUTZ (clumsy),
BILLIG (cheap)
GRUB (fat)
DREYFUS (crippled)
STARK (strong)

Jewish Birth Names of some famous Performers:
Woody Allen --- Alan Stewart Koenigsberg
June Allyson --- Ella Geisman
Lauren Bacall --- Betty Joan Perske
Jack Benny --- Benjamin Kubelsky
Irving Berlin --- Israel Baline
Milton Berle --- Milton Berlinger
Joey Bishop ---Joseph Gottlieb
Karen Black --- Karen Blanche Ziegler
Victor Borge --- Borge Rosenbaum
Fanny Brice --- Fanny Borach
Mel Brooks --- Melvin Kaminsky
George Burns --- Nathan Birnbaum
Eddie Cantor --- Edward Israel Iskowitz
Jeff Chandler --- Ira Grossel
Lee J. Cobb --- Amos Jacob
Tony Curtis --- Bernard Schwartz
Rodney Dangerfield --- Jacob Cohen
Kirk Douglas --- Issur Danielovich Demsky
Melvyn Douglas --- Melvyn Hesselberg
Bob Dylan --- Bobby Zimmerman
Paulette Goddard --- Pauline Levy
Lee Grant --- Lyova Geisman
Elliot Gould --- Elliot Goldstein
Judy Holliday --- Judith Tuvim
Al Jolson --- Asa Yoelson
Danny Kaye --- David Daniel Kaminsky
M ichael Landon --- Michael Orowitz
Steve Lawrence --- Sidney Leibowitz
Jerry Lewis --- Joseph Levitch
Peter Lorre --- Lazlo Lowenstein
Elaine May --- Elaine Berlin
Yves Montand --- Ivo Levy
Mike Nichols --- Michael Peschkowsky
Joan Rivers --- Joan Molinsky
Edward G. Robinson --- Emanuel Goldenberg
Jane Seymour --- Joyce Penelope Frankenburg
Simone Signoret --- Simone-Henriette Kaminker
< B>Beverly Sills --- Belle Silverman
Sophie Tucker --- Sophia Kalish
Jean Pierre Aumont --- J. P. Goldberg
Gene Wilder --- Gerald Silberman
Sam Waterston --- Sam Wasserstein
Douglas Fairbanks --- Douglas Ulman
Lainie Kazan --- Elaine Levine
Lenny Bruce --- Leonard Schneider

Yiddish was the secret code, therefore I don't farshstaist,
A bisseleh maybe here and there, the rest has gone to waste.
Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist.
My Bubbeh spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsimisht.

So och un vai as I should say, or even oy vai iz mir,
Though my pisk is lacking Yiddish, it's familiar to my ear.
And I'm no Chaim Yonkel , in fact I was shtick naches,
But, when it comes to Yiddish though, I'm talking with my tuchas.

Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better (Though it's really nishtkefelecht when one needs to write a letter)
But, when it comes to characters, there's really no contention,
No other linguist can compete with honorable mentshen:
They have nebbishes and nebechels and others without mazel,
Then, too, schmendriks and schlemiels, and let's not forget schlemazel.
These words are so precise and descriptive to the listener,
So much better than "a pill" is to call someone 'farbissener'.

Or - that a brazen woman would be better called chaleria,
And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria.
I'm not haken dir a tsheinik and I hope I'm not a kvetch,
But isn't mieskeit kinder, than t o call someone a wretch?

Mitten derinnen, I hear Bubbeh say, "It's nechtiker tog, don't fear,
To me you're still a maven, zol zein shah, don't fill my ear.
A leben ahf dein keppele, I don't mean to interrupt,
But you are speaking narishkeit.....And a gezunt auf dein kup!"