... Recommend this page to a friend.

Other than aristocrats and wealthy people Jews did not get surnames in Eastern Europe until the Napoleonic 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 were 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. The earliest American Jews were Sephardic (or Sephardim). 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), HOLTZKOCKER (wood chopper), GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith), SCHNEIDER (tailor), KREIGSMAN (warrior), EISEN (iron), FISCHER (fish)

3. Names from city of residence ... Examples:

   German: BERLIN, DANZIGER, DEUTSCH, FRANKFURTER, MANNHEIM, OPPENHEIMER, Polish: BRESLAU, CRACOW, POLLACK, WARSHAW

4. Bought names ... Examples:

   GLUCK (luck), ROSEN (roses), ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf), ROSENBERG (rose mountain), ROTHMAN (red man), DIAMOND, KOENIG (king), KOENIGSBERG (king's mountain), SPIELMAN (spiel is to play), LIEBER (lover), BERG (mountain), WASSERMAN (water dweller), KERSHENBLATT (church paper), STEIN (glass).

5. Assigned names (usually undesirable) ... Examples:

   PLOTZ (to die), KLUTZ (clumsy), BILLIG (cheap)

Original Birth Names of Jewish Performers:

Al Jolson --- Asa Yoelson
Beverly Sills --- Belle Silverman
Bob Dylan --- Bobby Zimmerman
Danny Kaye --- David Daniel Kaminsky
Danny Thomas --- Amos Jacobs
Eddie Cantor --- Edward Israel Iskowitz
Edward G. Robinson -- Emanuel Goldenberg
Elaine May --- Elaine Berlin
Elliot Gould --- Elliot Goldstein
Fanny Brice --- Fanny Borach
Gene Wilder --- Gerald Silberman
George Burns --- Nathan Birnbaum
Irving Berlin --- Israel Baline
Jack Benny --- Benjamin Kubelsky
Jane Seymour --- Joyce Penelope Frankenburg
Jeff Chandler --- Ira Grossel
Jerry Lewis --- Joseph Levitch
Joan Rivers --- Joan Molinsky
Joey Bishop ---Joseph Gottlieb
Judy Holliday --- Judith Tuvim
June Allyson --- Ella Geisman
Karen Black --- Karen Blanche Ziegler
Kirk Douglas --- Issue Danielovich Demsky
Lauren Bacall --- Betty Joan Perske
Lee Grant --- Lyova Geisman
Lee J. Cobb --- Leo Jacoby
Mel Brooks --- Melvin Kaminsky
Melvyn Douglas --- Melvyn Hesselberg
Michael Landon --- Eugene Maurice Orowitz
Mike Nichols --- Michael Peschkowsky
Milton Berle --- Milton Berlinger
Paulette Goddard --- Marion Levy
Peter Lorre --- Lazlo Lowenstein
Rodney Dangerfield --- Jacob Cohen
Simone Signoret --- Simone-Henriette Kaminker
Sophie Tucker --- Sophia Kalish
Steve Lawrence --- Sidney Leibowitz
Tony Curtis --- Bernard Schwartz
Victor Borge --- Borge Rosenbaum
Woody Allen --- Alan Stewart Koenigsberg