When researching Jewish last names, a valuable resource is A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, by Alexander Beider, the acknowledged expert on Jewish names. (Other sources at end of column.)
First — or given — names can also be perplexing.
While not as critical as researching the correct last name, first names can be confusing, and becomes more important when researching common last names, such as Cohen, Goldstein and others.
Our ancestors usually had several “first” names in the “old country” which were commonly used between family and friends but not with the non-Jewish world.
Hebrew Names
Most of our ancestors had a Hebrew name (used primarily in religious services and records) along with a secular name.
In Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, infants were often given Hebrew names of an admired family member who had passed — usually a grandparent, great-grandparent or possibly uncle or aunt. Only if a parent died before the baby’s birth would that name be given to a child.
These traditions can sometimes help you create a hypotheses about grandparents’ names and death dates, but be careful with assumptions and gather other evidence before arriving at a conclusion.
Sephardic Jews generally named children after living relatives, which could be an important clue when researching.
A name may have been changed in childhood because of the Jewish practice of renaming a very sick child to “hide” them from the Angel of Death. Children who were born after siblings who died in infancy were sometimes given names that meant “old” or “grandmother” (Alter, Bube, Zaide).
Like some surnames, given names are often biblically based, but they can also be derived from animals associated with Jacob’s sons (deer, bear, lion, wolf).
Double names were often given, such as Dvora Rifka — a girl who might be named after two of her deceased grandmothers. A boy might be given the name Zvi Hirsh, a common combination that means “deer” in both Hebrew and Yiddish, respectively.
Names in some records can also be nicknames, which could refer to several possibilities (i.e. Nisel could be Nissan or Natan), which gets even more confusing when considering how they were pronounced in different countries or regions.
Knowing the Hebrew name is helpful because that will help confirm what is written on the gravestone, along with the father’s Hebrew name. These naming patterns are important to know when researching Eastern European records.
In more Orthodox communities, these traditions continue.
Secular Names
Secular names were given that generally fit within the language and culture they lived in. Since most of our Ashkenazi forebearers spoke Yiddish, they likely would have had a Yiddish name (i.e. Hirsch, Leib, etc.) and possibly another name in the local language (Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, etc.). If they immigrated to an English-speaking country, the name likely became anglicized. Of course, secular names reflected the most popular names of the times.
My great-grandfather Shlomo arrived about 1904, and his Americanized name was Sam. His father Schmuel, arrived several years later (a typical Jewish immigration pattern) and he also used the name Sam. This is unusual, but can happen. It is very rare to see “Jr.” attached to a Jewish name.
A common practice was for parents to name their children after the first letter of a deceased ancestor, especially if the ancestral name didn’t have an easy secular equivalent, e.g., Susan for Scheindl. While there are some common naming patterns (Debbie for Dvora) many have no predictability and again one should be cautious in assumptions.
Secular names could also be changed as the child grew older, when they didn’t like it or wanted to assimilate faster. For example, Moses could be changed to Morris or Morey. Sometimes there is a complete name change. One client’s grandfather was named Morris in early census records, but later inexplicably changed his name to Raymond. His father’s name was Osvey, but then he used Isadore.
JewishGen has a very good resource on given names that I recommend for more info.
Also, the authoritative “bible” on the subject is Alexander Beider’s A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation, and Migrations.
