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Other than Jewish aristocrats and wealthy people, Jews had no surnames in Eastern Europe until the early 1800s. Most Jews in 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: Mendelssohn, Jacobson, Levinson, etc.
During the "Jewish "Emancipation" Jews were again ordered to take surnames.
(“Jewish Emancipation” was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth century. Jewish emancipation followed the Age of Enlightenment and the concurrent Jewish enlightenment and grew by the abolition of discriminatory laws applied specifically against Jews in their various countries. Prior to the emancipation most Jews were practically locked away from the rest of the society; thus, emancipation was a major goal of European Jews of that time and internally stressed integration and broader education. This led to active participation and recognition of Jews within wider European civil society, as well as emigration to countries offering better opportunities, especially in Britain and the Americas. Later, European Jews turned to revolutionary movements, especially when faced with oppressive regimes such as the Russian Empire or specifically Jewish political movements such as Zionism, when faced with continuing anti-Semitism.)
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. 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 early American Jews were Sephardic, of Spanish derivation (e.g., the “Touro” Synagogues in Newport and New Orleans, were named for Sephardic colonists Isaac and Judah Touro, respectively). In general, there were five types of names. People had to pay for their choice of names; with the poor being assigned names:
Type 1: Names that was descriptive of the Head of Household:
HOC: (tall)
KLEIN (small)
COHEN (rabbi)
BURGER (village dweller)
SHEIN (good looking)
LEVI (temple singer)
GROSS (large)
SCHWARTZ (dark or black)
WEISS (white)
KURTZ (short)
Type 2: Names describing Occupations:
HOLTZ (wood)
HOLTZKNOCKER (wood chopper)
GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith)
SCHNEIDER (tailor)
KREIGSMAN (warrior)
EISEN (iron)
FISCHER (fish)
STARK (strong)
Type 3: Names from City of Residence:
BERLIN
FRANKFURTER
DANZIGER, OPPENHEIMER
DEUTSCH (German)
POLLACK (Polish)
BRESLAU
MANNHEIM
CRACOW
WARSHAW
VAN PRAAG (Prague)
NEDERLANDER (Holland)
Type 4: Miscellaneous Names:
GLUCK (luck)
ROSEN (roses)
ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf)
ROSENBERG (rose hill)
ROTH (red)
DIAMOND
KOENIG (king)
KOENIGSBERG (king's mountain)
SPIELMAN (player)
LIEBER (dear),
BERG (hill or mountain)
WASSER (water)
KIRSCH (church)
SHULL (synagogue)
STEIN (stone).
Type 5: Descriptive Names:
PLOTZ (burst)
KLUTZ (clumsy)
BILLIG (cheap)
GRUB (fat)
DREYFUS (crippled)
STARK (strong)
Jewish Birth Names of some famous performers:
Al Jolson: Asa Yoelson
Beverly Sills: Belle Miriam Silverman
Bob Dylan: Robert Allen Zimmerman
Danny Kaye: David Daniel Kaminsky
Douglas Fairbanks: Douglas Elton Ullman
Eddie Cantor: Israel Iskowitz
Edward G. Robinson: Emanuel Goldenberg
Elaine May: Elaine Berlin
Elliot Gould: Elliott Goldstein
Fanny Brice: Fania Borach
Gene Wilder: Jerome Silberman
George Burns: Nathan Birnbaum
Irving Berlin: Isadore Baline
Jack Benny: Benjamin Kubelsky
Jane Seymour: Joyce Penelope Frankenburg
Jean Pierre Aumont: Jean-Pierre Phillipe Salomons
Jeff Chandler: Ira Grossel
Jerry Lewis: Joseph Levitch
Joan Rivers: Alexandra Molinsky
Joey Bishop: Joseph Abraham Gottlieb
Judy Holliday: Judith Tuvim
June Allyson: Ella Geisman
Karen Black: Karen Blanche Ziegler
Kirk Douglas: Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Lainie Kazan: Lainie Levine
Lauren Bacall: Betty Joan Penske
Lee Grant: Lyova Geisman
Lee J. Cobb: Leon Jacob
Lenny Bruce: Leonard Alfred Schneider
Mel Brooks: Melvin Kaminsky
Melvyn Douglas: Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg
Michael Landon: Eugene Maurice Orowitz
Mike Nichols: Michael Igor Peschkowsky
Milton Berle: Milton Berliner
Paulette Goddard: Marion Pauline Levy
Peter Lorre: Laszlow Lowenstein
Rodney Dangerfield: Jacob Cohen
Sam Waterston: Samuel Atkinson Wasserstein
Simone Signoret: Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker
Sophie Tucker: Sonia Kalish
Steve Lawrence: Sidney Leibowitz
Tony Curtis: Bernard Schwartz
Victor Borge: Borge Rosenbaum
Woody Allen: Alan Stewart Konigsberg
Yves Montand: Ivo Livi
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Kolot - November 2011
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