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Reassessing the Adoption of Jewish Family Names in Galicia – Live on Zoom
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History invites audiences to a fascinating online lecture, “When Jokele Berkowicz Became Jakob Funkelstein: Reassessing the Adoption of Jewish Family Names in Galicia,” to be held live on Zoom.
Focusing on the 1780s, when thousands of Jews in Habsburg Galicia adopted new hereditary family names, this presentation offers a fresh historical reassessment of a subject long shaped by anecdote and stereotype. Drawing on newly discovered archival materials and the analysis of thousands of surnames, the lecture will revisit the political circumstances of surname adoption and examine the actual processes through which these names were created.
The talk promises to shed light on the many sources of Galician Jewish surnames - from imaginative coinages and occupational designations to references to personal traits and literary influences. It will also offer valuable guidance for genealogists and family historians working with Galician records such as metrical books, census lists, and gravestones, showing how a better understanding of naming practices can help reconstruct biographies even from the period before hereditary surnames were fully established.
The speaker, Johannes Czakai, PhD, is a historian and postdoctoral fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on early modern Jewish history, names, genealogy, conversions, and espionage. He is also the author of the award-winning 2021 monograph Nochems neue Namen, an important contribution to the study of Jewish naming practices in Galicia and Bukovina.
This promises to be an engaging and highly relevant event for scholars of onomastics, Jewish history, genealogy, and Central and Eastern European history alike.
Index of Participants and Subjects at the fifteen Biennial
International Conferences on Jewish Onomastics (1993–2021)
by Aaron Demsky
Founder and Director of the Project for the Study of Jewish Names
Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, Israel
(June 10, 2024)
The primary goal of the Project for the Study of Jewish Names, founded in 1991, was to establish Jewish onomastics as a recognized academic field of study and research. Within the framework of the Koschitsky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, we were able to achieve this goal. This project was based on three aspects. Primarily, teaching Jewish onomastics in undergraduate and advanced classes in the department and in the Department of Hebrew Language. Some students went on to do an MA and even a doctorate with honors.
The second aspect was to organize regular international conferences on this wide field of study. The fifteen biennial gatherings brought together senior scholars as well as young academics. Over the years, hundreds of speakers participated in these conferences, in addition to thousands of interested laymen in attendance, drawing media coverage. The abstract booklets can be found in the sites of Academia.edu and ResearchGate.
The third aspect in creating a new and vibrant academic field of study is to encourage publication. Evolving from the conferences was the peer-reviewed series of collected essays These are the Names: Studies on Jewish Onomastics(TATN) vols. 1–5 featuring articles in Hebrew and English. In addition, a second series of collected essays and monographs in English on specific topics was created, e.g., The Sephardic Diaspora , Yemenite Jewish Names and Rumanian Names during the Old Kingdom. Other publications of articles and books evolved out of these lectures, while some of the lectures were excerpted from larger studies by established scholars in the field.
by Aaron Demsky It is a pleasure to introduce the participants of the Fourteenth International Conference on Jewish Names. These biennial conferences have attracted both established senior scholars as well as independent as well as younger colleagues, who are beginning their academic careers. In addition to the Israeli scholars, our roster of lecturers includes those from Romania, Italy, Poland, Czechia, Croatia, Canada and the United States. In all, this year's conference has twenty speakers. The chronological framework discussed in these papers spans the total Jewish historic experience, from the biblical period until the present day. Several papers treat naming trends in modern Israel especially regarding communal, religious and national identity. Others research trends in the Jewish Diaspora. This year, we have two noted speakers - Dr. Avshalom Kor and Dr. Ruvik Rosenthal -- who will open and close this conference respectively. Each in his own way, has endeared the Hebrew language to the wider Israeli public. In so doing, they have made major contributions in understanding the Jewish name and contemporary naming patterns in modern Israel.
The Project for the Study of Jewish Names founded twenty-eight years ago, is housed in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University. One of the goals of the project is the publication of scholarly papers in English and in Hebrew. To date we have published the series These are the Names – Studies in Jewish Onomastics(Bar-Ilan University Press) volumes 1-5, and in cooperation with the University of Maryland Press and Penn State University Press we are publishing an onomastic series of different Jewish communities. The first volume which appeared in 2010 is Pleasant are Their Names – Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora(ed. Aaron Demsky). A second volume, a monograph by Prof. Aharon Gaimani, Yemenite Jewish Names: A Cultural and Social History appeared last year. A third volume by Dr. Alex Avram, Romanian Surnames in the Old Kingdomis in press. Indeed, onomastics has become a tool for historic research in understanding changing fashions, aesthetics and beliefs of world Jewry and for understanding the interaction of Jews with gentile cultures over the ages. We take pride in the fact that Jewish onomastics has become a recognized field of Jewish and Social studies. Its success is measured by the wide interest these conferences have for academics and laymen. We have inaugurated a data-base and chat list which we hope will bring together both scholar and interested lay person, at http://www.jewish-names.org/publications.html.
The most popular baby name in Israel in 2015 was Muhammad, given to some 2,730 newborns, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The annual report also found that the second-most popular name was Yosef, given to 1,880 children (1,194 Jewish boys and 637 Muslims) followed by Ariel, which was given to 1,792 Jewish children, boys and girls alike.
The most popular Jewish name for a boy, for the second year in a row, was Noam, with some 1,414 boys given this name. The following choices also made the list of the top 10 most popular names: David, Ori/Uri, Ariel, Eitan, Yosef, Itai, Yonatan, Daniel and Moshe, similar to the most popular names for boys in 2014.
The report also found that there was a significant increase in the number of boys named Dror, Yigal and Elroi in 2015, compared with the past decade.
The most popular Jewish name for a girl was Noa, which has remained one of the most popular names for a girl for the past 16 years. Also among the most popular names: Tamar, Maya, Avigail, Talia, Adele, Shira, Ayala, Yael and Sara.
The report also broke down the most popular baby names for a girl by city: In Jerusalem, the most popular baby name for a girl was Sara, while in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Holon, Rishon Lezion and Ramat Gan, the most popular name was Maya. In Bnei Brak, a predominately ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, the most popular name for a girl was also Sara, while in Ashdod, Ashkelon and Bat Yam, the most popular name was Adele.
The report also found that one in every five Muslim boys is named Muhammad or Ahmed (15% and 4.6% of newborns, respectively). Also making the top ten list for most popular Muslim baby boy names: Yosef, Omar, Adam, Jud, Abed, Ali, Amir, Ibrahim, Mahmoud and Haled.
The most popular name among Muslim girls was Miryam, followed by Sham, Jana, Lin, Lian, Aline and Sa’ara.
I recently came across this article, published in Volume 40 of Library Journal in 1915. The article, written for librarians obviously, explains the problem faced by libraries in areas with large populations of Jews. The problem addressed is the large variation in names among Jews, something well documented elsewhere but interesting in this article for its practical purpose (signing up library patrons) as long as you can excuse its casual racism.
One interesting item is the mention of the Brownsville branch of the Brooklyn public library building a Jewish name index to use to solve this problem. I’ve contacted the library and am waiting to hear back if they still have a copy of the mentioned index. That would be an interesting document to see.
The whole volume (1036 pages) is available on the Internet Archive (pages 402-405), although I’ve made a copy of just the relevant pages available as well for those interested in seeing the original. Otherwise, I’ve reproduced the complete text below:
PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN REGISTRATION
To understand properly the problems arising in the registration file of a library composed largely of Jewish readers, it is almost necessary to know something of the history of the Jewish language.
Fishberg, in his book, “The Jews,” says: “Peculiar as it may appear to the uninformed, it is nevertheless a fact that there is no such language as could properly be called ‘Jewish’ When the language called Jewish is used as the mother tongue by some Jews, as is the case with Spagnuoli, Yiddish, Judaeo-Persian, it is not at all a Jewish language in the strict sense of the word. Each of these dialects is not understood by all Jews, the Yiddish-speaking Jew not understanding his Spanish co-religionists, the Persian not understanding either, while very few indeed understand Hebrew.”
From the Babylonian captivity, the Jews have spoken, in turn, Chaldaic, Greek, Arabic, coming in the middle ages to the language of whatever European country they settled in, and this language, probably at first, certainly later, they wrote in Hebrew characters. From the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries the persecution of the Jews was widespread, and during that time laws were passed in the countries where they were allowed to remain restricting them to the Ghetto. As a result of this isolation, the language retained the vernacular of the middle ages. When persecutions drove many of the German Jews to Poland and further east, they by their superior culture were able to impose their language on their brethren, incorporating, however, many words of the eastern language. Thus, as Fishberg states: “The most widespread of the Jewish dialect is Yiddish (Judaeo-German, Judische); more than one-half of all the Jews in the world speak it. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century the Yiddish- speaking Jews were concentrated in Poland, Russia, Roumania, Austria-Hungary and parts of Germany. Since they began to wander away from their native lands during the last fifty years, they have carried this dialect into all parts of the globe. It is natural that the first generation should employ this dialect” in the new country, but “changes have taken place by the introduction of new words and phrases borrowed from” their new neighbors. “As is the rule in western Europe, the Jews of England and the United States give up Yiddish in favor of English. The children of the immigrants, compelled to speak to their parents in Yiddish, learn somewhat of this dialect, but practically never speak it among themselves.”
Before showing how these differing nationalities and dialects have affected the names of our foreign Jewish population, a word must be said about the names themselves.
A good story is told of the origin of names. Adam and Eve were assigning names in Eden, and after finishing with the plants, birds and beasts, finally came to men. As these filed by names were given them, Brown to this one, Sherman to that, Goldberg to the next and so on. Eve at last became tired, and seeing a long line still coming, she turned wearily to Adam, and said, “Let’s call all the rest Cohen.” And this accounts for so many Cohens.
Though surnames were not unknown among the early Jews, they were not common, even as late as the eighteenth century. In 1787, however, Austria and Bohemia compelled the Jews to adopt surnames, which, until 1836 in Bohemia, were restricted to Biblical names. Napoleon in 1808 also compelled the Jews of France to adopt surnames and limited the free choice of names. Therefore, names of Biblical origin are naturally most numerous, such as Aaron, Cohen, Levy, and their variants. Then came names taken from localities, as Berlin, Hollander, London, the larger proportion of these being German. Next in order were names taken from their trades or occupations, as Schneider, in English Taylor, Goldsmith, Scherer and the like. Some called themselves from their fathers Abramson, Isaacson; while some, I understand, even bought theirs from their Christian neighbors.
With this enforced adoption of a surname, there is, of course, no feeling attached to it, nor any pride or sentiment such as we feel in connection with a long ancestry.
Among the Jewish immigrants here in New York we have representatives from all Europe, and as is natural, a name will vary with the different countries and dialects. Take, for example, the most usual surname of European Jews as given in the Jewish Encyclopedia Cohen. It is the Hebrew for “priest,” and indicates a family claiming descent from Aaron, the high priest, therefore of the ecclesiastical class, as Levy indicates the middle class, and Israel the common people. “Cohen” is the usual transliteration in English-speaking countries, but Cowan and Cowen also occur. Russia has a form Kagan and Kogen, which will be explained later, with Cahan, Kahana and others; Italy has Coen; France, Cahn, Caen and others. There are many variants, as is shown by the following sample taken from the library registration file.
While the country and the dialect form one cause of confusion in names, transliteration is a great factor. One or two examples of transliteration from the Russian will show more clearly than any explanation can do how difficult it is to transliterate, and what a part the dialects play. Take the well-known names of Dostoyevsky, spelled also Dostoieffsky and four other ways, and Turgenieff, also spelled Turgenev. These are all from reliable authorities. Which is correct ? When doctors disagree, who is to decide? The Russian v is pronounced as English /, the w as v. A common ending of Russian names, wits may be vitz, witch, vitch, wich or vich. Unlike our dialects of North, South and West, where with one spelling we pronounce certain words differently, in Russia each district has its own spelling corresponding to the pronunciation. In one district the name of Nudelman, in i another is spelled Needleman; in the first case the Russian vowel can be transliterated or oo, in the last as ee or ie.
Russian also has one equivalent for both the English g and h, so a distinctly Russian name as Hirshkowitz may also be Girshkowitz, and as we have seen, Cohen may become Cogen. Let us trace other variations in that one name Hirshkowitz besides the g and h. Substitute e for i, sch for sh, and any of the above forms for wits, and you have forty-eight ways of spelling that one name, to an almost hopeless confusion in our registration files.
Yiddish has its difficulties. Take Cohen again for an example. In the Yiddish spelling the first letter may be transliterated either c or k, the second a or o, the third h, and the last n (Cahn or Cohn, Kahn or Kohn). As vowels are rarely employed except to help the beginner, the e can be supplied or not, and can be put in any place. Add to this the variations due to country and dialect, and as has been shown, we have over twenty ways of spelling the name. Who wants to collate Cohen in twenty places in a registration file? And I leave to your imagination the variety of ways in which the vowel sounds can be written in English from the sound alone, especially when pronounced by the uneducated foreigner with his poor enunciation.
His ignorance and the carelessness that goes with it are other great factors in this confusion of names. Mr. Solis-Cohen says, more especially of the Russian Jews: “Not many more than two adults in fifty will always spell their own names the same way, and for every member of a family to spell the family name alike is unusual. This happens chiefly because people think of the name in their vernacular and the way it is transliterated cr translated is an unimportant detail. Moreover, when they first arrive and begin to learn our characters, they spell their names phonetically, not becoming acquainted with the vagaries of English spelling until much later. With children, much of the trouble is due to Anglicizing a foreign name, e. g., changing Rosinsky to Rosen, and to the carelessness of the school teacher, who insists that a child spell his name a certain way without first discovering how his father spells it.” I may say here, however, that it is sometimes impossible to find out how he does spell it. It may be that six months ago he spelled it one way and to-day, having no occasion to write it in English meanwhile, he will have forgotten how he did spell it and will use a different form. When asked which way he prefers he will shrug his shoulders and say : “It makes no difference ; it is all the same.” “All the same” we would like to know his choice, and it is often left to us to decide the form.
Help has come to the schools, as for the past two years they have required birth certificates at the time of registering. Many foreigners have to send to their native countries for them, and through these some queer mistakes have come to light, mistakes that were made at the immigration station when arriving in this country. Here is one. Two children of a family were registered as Isaac and Jacob, but when the birth certificate came it was found the elder was Jacob, and he had been using his brother’s name all these years. It is almost unbelievable that the parents should not have known the names or were careless enough to allow the change. Such changes of names, and especially a change of surname, is probably due to the confusion attendant on landing in a strange country. The foreigner is ignorant of the language, the official is obliged to enter hundreds of names, names enunciated very poorly, and which the immigrant cannot spell in English, if at all, and so, with no time to patiently question the man, the nearest name sounding like the one pronounced is given him. With the respect for official authority, which the immigrant feels he must obey, he accepts the name without question and not until months later, when he has learned somewhat of the language and customs of the country, does he realize he can return to his own name. And he does so without notice to the proper authorities or with any thought of wrongdoing.
Poor enunciation, someone has said, is a racial characteristic of the Jews, though with care it can be overcome, as faults of pronunciation can also be corrected. The Lithuanian Jews cannot pronounce sh or sch they say s, as Savinsky for Schavinsky while the Roumanian Jews are like the London cockney in the use of h, Eller for Heller, Hoberman for Oberman; but children brought up in this country can pronounce these sounds. When there is intermarriage between these two countries, the children of the family will use both or either, and spell as they pronounce.
Other cases could be given, but I think these are enough to show some of the causes of confusion in names, and how few people really have any intention of deceiving when they change the spelling. Where deception is met with, it is usually a deliberate translation, as from Schwartz to Black, or they change to a very different name, as. from Raflowitz to Cohen. Some have a different name at home, to what they have, say, registered at the gas company. One child recently could not remember whether her card at the library was under her own or her “gas-meter” name. There is one peculiarity all should know. “Junior” is so rare that you could say it is never met with. It is not customary to name a child for father or grandfather if either is living; they think it brings bad luck. If, therefore, a child gives his name the same as his father it is best to question him carefully.
Among the poorer classes they seem to have no idea of the value of a signature. Time and time again parents, almost invariably those who cannot write English or cannot write at all, when they come to the library to endorse their child’s application, will tell the child to sign for them. And I should say most o*f these are the women. A borrower leaving this country to return to his native land will bequeath or sell his library card to a friend, who, upon the expiration of the application, will renew it, signing the friend’s name. And he will do this all in good faith.
These and many more are the problems to be met with in a Jewish registration file, and probably similar ones are to be found among other nationalities.
At the Brownsville branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, as an attempt to meet this problem, they are using the group system of filing instead of the strictly alphabetical one. All variations of a name are filed, as a rule, under the most common form, with cross references and extended forms directly after the simple or root name. An index of all the names is being made in the form of the A. L. A. index to subject headings, using “See also,” or, rather, “Collate with,” in cases where names are similar, though they are not put together in the application file. Great care has to be used in this grouping not to carry it too far. Names that in a Jewish neighborhood have been found interchangeable, as Black and Blake, in a strictly American one would never be considered the same and should not be put together. Each library, therefore, has its own problems to deal with in its own way, and this is only an attempt at solving the Jewish one.
The following are samples from the in index, showing the strictly alphabetical index with variations under “Refer from,” and names it is well to “Collate with” under that heading :
Scheflin
Schefloff
Ref. from: Shefloff
Schegal
Ref. from: Shegal
Scheiman
Schein
Ref. from : Schien, Shein Coll. with: Scheinberg, Scheinhaus, Scheinman.
In addition to providing e-instruction on conducting archival research, the Society will be offering a special webinar entitled “Onomastics for Genealogy, Names, Naming Patterns, & More” on the 15th of June, 2017.
The ancient history of Jewish settlement in the Crimea (in Russian, “Krym”) dates back over 2,000 years to the time of the Bosporan Kingdom, a Roman client state (438 BC-370 AD). From the eighth to the tenth centuries, the Crimea fell within the legendary Khazar kingdom in which Judaism was an official religion, although no genealogical connection between the Khazari and the Crimean Jews has ever been established. A continuous Jewish presence in the Crimea during the modern ages is documented from the 14th century onward. Following Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 1790, Crimean Jews became known as Jews-Krymchaks and thereafter, until today, they are simply described as Krymchaks.
The Bosporan Kingdom
[Due to the tremendous interest in the political crisis in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Avotaynu has adapted this article first published by Igor Kotler in the Spring 1989 edition of AVOTAYNU. The editors would be very interested in learning of any DNA or other recent projects shedding further light on the origins of the Krymchaks.]
During the 14th Century there were at least three different (Ashkenazi, Persian, and Romaniot) Jewish communities in the Crimea as well as a Karaite community. At the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century, Makhzor Minhag Kaffa (Prayer Book of the Kafa Custom) was created by Rabbi Moshe ben Yaakov (Moshe HaGolah), incorporating the different traditions of the disparate Crimean Jewish communities, thereby consolidated all Jews of the peninsula. In more recent centuries, Crimean Jews have followed Sephardi religious tradition.
Until recent years, the spoken language of Krymchaks has been, and continues to be, their special dialect of the Crimean Tatar language, while Hebrew is used for religious and community purposes. During the 20th Century, as a result of Russian and Nazi persecution (70% of Krymchaks (5,600) perished in the Shoah), the Krymchak is known only among elderly, and the Russian language prevails.
Table 1. Estimate Krymchak Population
Krymchak Population Living Within the Crimea
1783
~800
1844
1300
1879
~4000
1913
~7000
1926
6383
1939
~8000
1959
1500
1970
1053
2000
600
Communities
In the late Middle Ages and in modern times, Krymchaks have lived in Evpatoria, Fcodosia, Knrasubazar (now Helogorsk), Mangup, and Solkhat (now Staryi Krym). In the 19th century, many of them moved to Simferopol and Odessa. Now approximately half of them live in the Crimea (500 in Simferopol, others in Sevastopol, Kerch. Feodosia), while the other half lives out of the Crimea, in Sukhumi, Novorossii.sk, Moscow, and Leningrad.
For more than a century, scholars have pondered the origins of Crimean Jewry, without reaching any firm conclusions. Karaite Jews have argued in the past that the Krymchaks were simply a group of Karaites converted to Talmudic Judaism. Others argue that the Krymchaks are descendants of the Khazari. After World War II, the Khazari theory surprisingly appeared among some Krymchaks themselves in an effort to avoid the persecution associated with Soviet passports marked “Jewish”. The Soviet authorities, as a rule, supported the revisionist theories as it was official policy to discourage Jewish identity generally.
My research suggests that the Krymchaks were likely of Ashkenazi, Romaniote, or Persian origin and that after the creation of the Minhag Kafa, a new Crimean-based Jewish identity appeared, which included a friendly attitude to subesequent waves of Jewish migration to the Crimea from throughout the Diaspora, as reflected in family names, family legends, compromise religious traditions.
Determining Origins on the Basis of the Landmark 1913 Jewish Community Census
Lacking ancient records, I have used onomastics and genealogy to try to illuminate the origins of the Krymchaks. The first Krymchak family names appeared in the 15thCentury, and new names continued to appear up until the 1880s. Literary, oral, scholarly, and archival sources made it possible to collect almost all Krymchak family names, a total of 114, many of which include alternative Russian transliteration. Perhaps the main sources of names was the fascinating Krymchak community census of 1913 which is preserved in the St Petersburg Museum of Ethnography. This census, organized by the community leaders, included materials on about 5,500 Krymchaks from 19 different settlements in the Crimea and South Russia. In the census, there were questions about legends on family origins, responses to which provided a treasure trove of information about Krymchak family names.
The origins of most Krymchak family names can be traced to many different languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Turkic, Romanic, Slavic, and Yiddish. A few are toponymical (related to place names).
Table 2. Language Distribution of Krymchak family names
Language
Surnames
All Krymchaks
Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic)
30%
40%
Turkic
30%
32%
Romanic
21%
15%
Slavic
2%
0%
Yiddish
6%
4%
Unknown
1%
0%
Toponymical
10%
8%
Total
100%
100%
Etymology
Family names of Hebrew origin may be separated into five categories:
Jewish community roles: Kogen, Levi, Gabai, Nccman, Khakham.
Ethnonymical (names of peoples and tribes): Ashkenazi, Mizrakhi.
The last name Ashkenazi has existed among Crimean Jews since the 15th century. The surname Mizrakhi is widespread among Jews of the Balkans, Minor and Central Asia, and the Near Fast since the 14th century.” At the beginning of the 20th century, Krymchaks still had legends that bearers of the name Mizrakhi were descendants of Jews who came from Persia and Turkey.”
Origins
Linguistic and historical analysis of Hebrew family names suggests that rather having a single origin (i.e., the Khazari), Krymchak surnames can be traced to widely separated segments of the Jewish Diaspora, including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Caucasian, and Crimean origins. Some examples:
Ashkenazi. The families Sholom and Peisakh are probably of Ashkenazi origin, because for Sephardi Jews these forms have to be Shalom and Pcsakh.7 Neiman and Kogan arc also Ashkenazi.
Sephardi. Avraben and Tabon
Turkic. Ahrashov, Meieshevich, and Yusufov are Crimean, coming from Turkic forms of the Hebrew names Avraham, Matatia, and Yoscf.
Arabic. Masot is of Arabic origin, being a Sephardi form of the Arabic name Masud.
Caucusus. By family legends, Abacv and Nisimovich are from the Caucasus* and therefore might be connected with Tatar-spcaking mountain Jews.
The etymology of Krymchak surnames also reveals a direct connection to the various segments of Diaspora.
Askhenazim
All Krymchaks who were traditionally of Ashkenazi origin were named Ashkinazi. Some family names originating in Hebrew and Crimean Tatar that were considered Ashkenazi include Borukhov, Bokhor, Zengin, Kaia, Kokush. Kolpakchi, Neiman, Khafuz, Khondu, Cholak, and Chibar. The origin of the family name l.ekhno, appearing not later then the 17th century, is probably Ashkcnazi.
Sephardim (Italian, French, Ladino)
Family names etymologized on the basis of the Romance languages are 20% of all surnames in the sample and more than 10% of the bearers. Family names Andzhel, Konort, and Lombroso came from Spanish and Ladino; Konfino, Piastro, and Trevgoda are from Italian; Peazhe is from French. Some of these family names appeared among Krymchaks not later than the beginning of the 18th century.” All their bearers have Sephardi origin. In 1913, six families pointed to Spain or Italy as the countries of their origin, and three families pointed to Turkey.”
Yiddish
Family names etymologized on the basis of Yiddish (6% of surnames and about 4% of the bearers in 1913), as well as Berman, Gutman, Mudel, Fisher, Flisfeder, and others came as a result of Ashkenazi migration from Eastern Europe to the Crimea. The surname Berman had already appeared among Krymchaks by the beginning of the 18thcentury, while other last names came much later.
Slavic
Family names etymologized on the basis of the Slavic (Russian and Ukrainian) languages (2.5% of surnames and 0.2% of the bearers): Lobak, Solov’iov, Turkin, and Chernov reached Krymchaks through Ashkenazi Jews.
Caucusus
Among the family names based on the Crimean Tartar language, two of them, Gurdzhi and Lekhno, deserve mention. The family name Gurdzhi reflects the integration of Jewish migrants from the Caucasus (most likely Georgia) with Krymchaks. Its family bearers’ legends described in the 1913 census confirm this.
Toponyms
Last, toponymical family names (8% of surnames and 12% of the bearers) connect mainly with Ashkenazi and Sephardi subgroups. The surname Gota is spread among Sephards in Turkey.” The surnames Izmerli, Stamboli, and Tokatly came from cities Izmir, Istanbul, and Tokat which had sizable Sephardi communities in the late Middle Ages and in modern times.” The family names Bershadsky, Veinberg, Varshavsky, Lipshits, Lurie, and others appeared on the basis of various toponyms of Central and Eastern Europe coming to Krymchaks from Ashkenazi Jews. The family name Mangupli is the only one formed from the Crimean toponym Mangup, a town in which Krymchaks lived until the end of the 18th century.*’ The existence of the double family name Mangupli-Ashkenazi suggests that some of its bearers must have had Ashkenazi origin.
A relatively recent Turkic influence is illuminated by an analysis of double surnames
Turkic language surnames among the Krymchak may be grouped into the following
categories:
By professions and occupations: Atar, Bakshi, Biberdzhi, Saraf, Taukchi.
By physical or personal trails: Karagioz, Kokoz, Kossc, Khafuz, Chibar.
From proper names: Valit and Khondo.
Ethnonymical: Gurdzhi and Lckhno.
Though the first family names of Turkic origin, such as Kokoz and probably Bakshi, appeared in the 15th Century, the majority of Turkic family names were created in the 19th and early 20th centuries on the basis of the Crimean Tatar language. This conclusion comes from analysis of the Krymchak double family names found in the materials of 1913. Double-surnames began to be used in the middle of the 19th Century, apparently in connection with a need to officially differentiate among the many Krymchak families with prestigious older surnames such as Ashkenazi, Bakshi, or Levi, which predominated as shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Only ten surnames represented 50% of the Krymchak Population in 1913
Family Name
Number of Persons
% of Krymchak Families
Levi
451
8.3%
Bakshi
432
7.9%
Ashkenazi (Achkinazi)
355
6.5%
Mizrakhi
255
4.7%
Piastro
237
4.3%
Gurdzhi
224
4.1%
Purim
158
2.9%
Berman
153
2.8%
Peisakh
153
2.8%
Manto
137
2.5%
Total Top Ten
2555
46.8%
One half of these double family names typically represented an older surname used only for religious purposes. These names differed from official surnames and imply a desire to keep alive a memory of a family’s ancient origins.
Close analysis of double family names allows us to infer the origins of the bearers of these common surnames. For example, the Jewish surname Levi was one most commonly found among Krymchaks in 1913 and perhaps most in need of differentiation. The name is found paired with Ashkenazi family names (Veinberg-Levi), Sephardi (Levi-Gabeledzhi), Caucasian (Gurdzhi-Levi), and probably with the descendants of even earlier Crimean Jewish families. Interestingly, we can infer that the names Bakshi and Kokoz are descendants of those earlier Crimean Jews as they are never found connected with other prestigious ancient names in the 1913 census.
Table 4. Examples of Double surnames found in the 1913 Census (traditional names highlighted)
The general distribution of Krymchak family names by language group is listed in Table 1. Semantic and etymological analysis of Krymchak family names, analysis of their family legends, and statistical calculations from the 1913 materials indicate that at the beginning of the 20th century from 25-40% of all Krymchaks were descendants of Sephardi Jews; of Ashkenazi Jews, from 25-33%; of Caucasian and Persian Jews, from 5-6% each. From 12-25% of Krymchaks are connected most likely with an earlier Jewish group whose ethnic origin is too complicated to ascertain on the data of onomastics and genealogy (family names Bakshi, Kokoz, Kaia).
DICTIONARY OF JEWISH KRYMCHAK SURNAMES FROM THE CRIMEA
Abaev M: from the Hebrew names Abba or Abbaya
Abraben O: from Hebrew teacher’s father (honorific title) or from Sephardi family name Abrabanel (from Avraham).
Abrashev from Hebrew m.n. Avraham; 2. from Turkic, speckled, or dappled.
Abrashov (see Abrashev)
Abuev M: from Hebrew given name Abba; 2. From Hebrew m.n. Abbaya.
Achkinazi from Hebrew, meaning Jew from Germany or Eastern Europe
Afuz O: from [Krymchak] scholar.
Aga O: from Turkish, title for minor officials, also mister.
Akimov O: philosopher or judge in Turkish or doctor, physician.
Andzhel M: from the Sephardi given name Angclo.
Andzhelo (see Andzhel)
Andzhil (see Andzhel)
Anzhcl’ (see Andzhel)
Anzhela (see Andzhel)
Anzhelo (see Andzhel)
Anzhil’ (see Andzhel)
Ashenazi (see Achkinazi)
Asherov M: from the Hebrew given name Ashcr.
Ashkinazi (see Achkinazi)
Atar O: [Turkish] herbalist, dealer, druggist.
Avisbabis unknown.
Avisbadis-onknown.
Avraben (see Abraben)
Bakhshi (see Bakshi)
Bakshi M: from ancient Turkish meanig, tcacher or scribe; from Turkish, the given name Bakshi
BarukhoM: from the Hebrew given name Barukh
Beer M: from the Ashkcnazi given name Ber.
Bekhar O: from Hebrew abbreviation for son of the honorific tcachcr; T: from Bcjar in Spain; M: from the Sephardi given name Bckhar.
Bentovim Hebrew, pampered son of wealthy parents.
Berman (see Beer)
Bershadsky T: from Bcrshad in the Ukraine.
Biberdzhi O: from [Turkish] trader of pepper.
Bokhor in Hebrew, first born; M: from the Krymchak given name Bokhor.
Bokhorov (see Bokhor)
Borokhov . (see Borokhov)
Borukhov (see Borokhov)
Bukhorov (see Bokhor)
Chakehir from Turkic, a kind of men’s sharovary made from finespun fabrics.
Chapichcv O: from [Turkish] scavenger, sweeper, garbage collector, comber.
Chapichov (see Chapichev)
Chapkha (see Chapichev)
Chebar from [Krymchak] pitted, speckled.
Chernopol’sky from Chernopol(?).
Chernov from [Slavic] black
Chibar (see Chebar)
Cholak from [Turkish] having one arm missing or paralyzed, crippled in one hand; from [Krymchak] unskillful, awkward.
Cholakh (see Cholak)
Cholaki (see Cholak)
Chulakh (see Cholak)
Cliakhehir,
Cliapicho (see Chapichev)
Daniel M: Hebrew from the given name Daniel.
Demerdzhi O: from [Turkish] ironworker, smith, ironmonger.
Deredzhi O: from [Turkish] courier.
Dondo from [Ladino] great rich man.
Fesakh M: from the Ashkenazi Hebrew given name Peisakh.
Fisher O: [Yiddish] fisher.
Flisfeder from [Yiddish] fin?
Flisfeider (see Flisfeder)
Gabai O: from ‘gabbai’ [Hebrew] head, manager, or treasurer of a synagogue.
Gabeledzhi O: from [Ladino] tax, customs, meaning tax collector.
Gabelezhi (see Gabeledzhi)
Gaigo from [Turkish] trouble, sorrow, gricf(V).
Galach O: from [Turkish] combcr of cotton or wool.
Gershgorn from ‘hershhorn’ [Yiddish] stag horn.
Gidalevich M: from the given name Gdaliya [Hebrew].
Gobai (see Gabai)
Gota T: from Gotha, Germany
Gotta (see Gota)
Gurdzhi T: from [Turkish] Georgian.
Gutman M: from the given name Gutman [Yiddish]; 2. In Yiddish, good man; O: from ‘_____’ [German] ladler of hats.
Iusufov (see Yusupov)
Izmerli, T: from Izmir in Turkey
Izmirli (see Izmerli)
Kag’ia O: from [Turkish], steward, major domo, warden of a trade, guild
Kaia (see Kag’ia)
Kalpakchi O: from [Turkish] maker or seller of fur caps.
Karagioz (see Karagoz)
Karagoz 1. in Turkic, black eyed; O: [Turkish] shadow theater, main figure in this theater.
Karakoz (see Karagoz)
Karbi (see Karibi)
Karibi in Turkic, old mister.
Karpi (see Karibi)
Khafuz (see Afuz)
Khakham from [Hebrew] sage.
Khakhamov (see Khalham)
Khalham, M: from Krymchak
Khekim (see Akimov)
Khondo, M: from the Turkish feminine name Khondo
Khondu (see Khondo)
Koen (see Kogen)
Kogan (see Kogen)
Kogen, O: from ‘kohen’ [Hebrew] priest.
Kokiush (see Kokosh)
Kokos from [Turkish] blue eyed
Kokosh T: from [Krymchak Turkey; from [Turkish] stinking, rotten, lazy.
Kokoz (see Kokos)
Kokush (see Kokosh)
Kolpakchi (see Kalpakchi)
Konfin’io (see Konfino)
Konfin’o (see Konfino)
Konfinia (see Konfino)
Konfino from [Italian] exile.
Konfinu (see Konfino)
Konori (see Konfino)
Konorio M: from Sephardi Konort.
Kose from [Turkish] beardless
Kosse (see Kose)
Kuiumdzhi O: from [Turkish] jeweler, goldsmith.
Kuiundzhi (see Kuiumdzhi)
Kurkchi) O: from [Turkish] furrier.
Kuru: from [Turkish] dry, emaciated, thin, bare, mere.
l.ombezov (see Lombroso)
Labak (see Lobak)
Lambrozo (see Lombroso)
Lembroza (see Lombroso)
Levi from ‘Levi’ [Hebrew] Levite
Lipshits T: from Licbschitz in Germany,or from Lcobschuctz in Germany.
Livi (see Levi)
Lobak from [Ukrainian] little forehcad.
Lobok (see Lobak)
Lombozu (see Lombroso)
Lombroso M: from the Sephardi given name Lombroso.
Lombroz (see Lombroso)
Lombrozo (see Lombroso)
Lombrozu (see Lombroso)
losifov (see Yusupov)
Lur’e T: from Lauria in Italy
Mamgupli T: from the town of Mangup in the Crimea.
Mamto T: from the city of Mantua in Italy
Mando (see Mamto)
Masot M: from the Sephardi form of the Arabic given name Masud.
Matashevich (see Meteslievich)
Matoshevich (see Meteslievich)
Matushvich (see Meteslievich)
Mereshinsky T: from Macrish-Wcisskirchen or Machrisch-Ostrau in Germany.
Meshlam (see Meshulam)
Meshulam M: from Hebrew given name Mcshulam.
Meteshevich, from Hebrew given name Matatiya
Miroshavsky T: from Miroslavka in the Ukraine.
Mitashevich (see Meteslievich)
Mizrakhi, from [Hebrew] eastern, oriental
Moskil from ‘maskil’ [Hebrew] educated, cultured, enlightened.
Muzrakhi (see Mizrakhi)
Neeman O: from [Hebrew] honest, faithful, true, trusty, treasurer in a Jewish community.
Neiman (see Neeman)
Nisimovich M: from the Hebrew given name Nissim.
Novak from Hebrew m.n Noakh.
Novakhov (see Novak)
Nudel’ O: from [Yiddish] needle.
Ofus (see Afuz)
Ossok T: unknown, possibly from Osoka in Poland.
Pakshi (see Bakshi)
Patik (see Patyk)
Patyk -1. in Turkic, piastre or Polish copper coin; 2. in Russian, five kopecks coin; 3. in Turkic, child’s shoe.
Pcrech (see Perich)
Peazhi– O: from [French] toll collector.
Peiastro,
Peisakh (see Fesakh)
Penerdzhi (see Penirdzhi)
Penirdzhi O: from Turkic, maker or seller of cheese.
Perich M: from Hebrew given name Peretz.
Piastro (see Pyastro)
Piastrov (see Pyastro)
Piiastro (see Pyastro)
Pilastrov (see Pyastro)
Prus T: from Prussia.
Purim derived from the Jewish holiday of Purim.
Pyastro ??: from an ltalian or Turkic coin.
Rabinno O: from ‘rabbeinu’ [Hebrew] our teacher (honorific title).
Rabinu (see Rabinno)
Rafailov (see Refailov)
Rebi O: from ‘rebbi’ [Yiddish], teacher.
Refailov from the Hebrew given name Rafael.
Rekomi M: from the Hebrew given name Rekhumi.
Rukhomi (see Rekomi)
Samoilovich M: patronymic from the Russian form of the Hebrew given name Shmucl.
Sarach O: from [Turkish] saddler, leather worker.
Shalom M: from the Hebrew given name Shalom.
Shamash (see Shamesh)
Shamesh O: from [Hebrew] attendant, caretaker, beadle (in a synagogue).
Sholom (see Shalom)
Sokol’sky T: from Sokal in the Ukraine or Sokol in Poland.
Solov’iov from [Russian] nightingale.
Stamboli T: from Istanbul in Turkey.
Surdzhiun from [Turkish] exile.
Suruzhin,
Szhudi (see Zhud)
Tabon M: from the Hebrew given name Tibon.
Takatly T: from Tokat in Turkey.
Taukchi (see Taukhet)
Taukhet O: from [Turkish] raiser or seller of chickens.
Tavukchi (see Taukhet)
Tokatly (see Takatly)
Tomalak from [Turkish] round, stout, fat.
Tomolak (see Tomalak)
Trevgod (see Trigoda)
Trevgoda (see Trigoda)
Trevgodo (see Trigoda)
Trigoda M: from the Italian male given name Torquato.
Tunder‘ from [Yiddish] dark, dim, sinister.
Tuner O: from [Yiddish] maker of barrels.
Turkin from [Slavic] Turk.
Uralevich (see Urilevich)
Urelevich (see Urilevich)
Urilevich M: from the Hebrew male given name Uriel.
Vaimberg (see Veinberg)
Vainberg (see Veinberg)
Valid from [Turkish] father or M: from the Turkic-Arabic given name Valid.
Valit (see Valid)
Varshavsky T: from Warsaw in Poland.
Veinberg T: from Weinberg in Germany; T: from Weinberg, suburb of Gdansk in Poland; O: from [German] vineyard.
Vinbirik (see Veinberg)
Volshtein from [Yiddish] a stone of wool.
Yusefov (see Yusupov)
Yusupov M: from the Turkic form of the Hebrew given name Yoscf.
Zel’tser O: from [Yiddish] salt worker, trader of salt.
Corcos, David (1917-1975) Quelques aspects de la société juive dans le vieux Maroc; In: les prénoms des Juifs marocains. Folklore Research Center Studies, Vol.111, Jerusalem, 1972, 207.
Kupovetsky, M.S. Dinamika chislennosti i rasselenie karaimov i krymchakov za poslednie dvesti let. In the book Gcograjiia i kul’tlura etnograficheskikh grypp tatar v SSSR. (Moscow, 1083), p. 87.
Materials of the community census of Krymchaks of 1913. Manuscript Department of the Leningrad Museum of Ethnography, fond 1, opis’ 2, delo 796 and 828.
Moskona, Isaac M. “Za proizkhoda na familnite imena na belgarskite evrei.” (On the origin of the family names of the Bulgarian Jews.) (Bulgarian) Sofia. Obshtestvena kulturno prosvetna organizatsiya na evreite v narodna republika Bulgariya. Godishnik, 1, (Educational and Cultural Organization of the Jews in the Popular Republic of Bulgaria), annual no.1, 1967, p.132
Peisakh, Z.I. Krimchakcs.Soveiisli Heimland 7, 9 (July, September 1974).
Perelman, F.S. Po povodu odnoi krymchatskoi rukopisi. Voskhod 12 (1902);
Rosanes (Rozanis), Shlomo. Divre yemei yisrael betogarma al pi mekorot rishonim. 4 v. (History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire according to primary sources) (Hebrew) Tel Aviv, Dvir, 1930.
1. Appearence of Krymchak surnames with Russian suffixes -ov (-ev) and -ovich (-cvich) was a result of work of Russian officials after the occupation of the Crimea by Russia in the end of the 18th century.
2. Krymchak pronunciation of Hebrew is very close to Sephardi. In I. Moskona’s opinion, Peisakh is a proper family name which was brought by Ashkenazi migrants
3. Information by P.E.Piastro (1984). By this data, even in the beginning of the 20th century, the bearers of the name Mizrakhi kept the pronunciation of Hebrew different from the Krymchak one.
Further reading:
http://crymchaks.org/ Crimean Republican Cultural and Educational Society Krymchaks “Krymchahlar”
Igor A. Kotler taught Jewish, Russian, Soviet, American and World history at UCLA, the University of Judaism, FIDM, Golden Gate University and Moorpark College in California and religion at the University of Phoenix. He served as Historian at Survivors of the Shoa Visual History Foundation in Los Angeles and as Senior Historian at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Currently he is President and Executive Director of the Museum of Human Rights, Freedom and Tolerance, Adjunct Professor of the University of Phoenix and President of the American Council on the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance. Igor A. Kotler published over 30 articles and book chapters in several languages. At CGHR Igor A. Kotler is conducting research for the exhibitions and programs of the Museum of Human Rights, Freedom and Tolerance, studying the development of nationalism and human rights in the former Soviet Union, and participating in seminars and other educational activities of the Center.
