Jewish Surnames
Jewish surnames are family names used by Jews and those of Jewish origin. Jewish surnames are thought to be of comparatively recent origin; the first known Jewish family names date to the Middle Ages, in the 10th and 11th centuries. Jews have some of the largest varieties of surnames among any ethnic group, owing to the geographically diverse Jewish diaspora, as well as cultural assimilation and the recent trend toward Hebraization of surnames. Some traditional surnames relate to Jewish history or roles within the religion, such as Cohen ("priest"), Levi ("Levi"), Shulman (" synagogue-man"), Sofer ("scribe"), or Kantor/Cantor ("cantor"), while many others relate to a secular occupation or place names. The majority of Jewish surnames used today developed in the past three hundred years. History Historically, Jews used Hebrew patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by ''ben-, bar-'' or ''bat-'' ("son of" in Hebrew, "son of" in Aramaic and ...
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