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The Hebraization of surnames (also spelled Hebraicization) (LeAvret, "to Hebraize") is the process of adopting Hebrew family name
Family name

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
s (also called surname
Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases a surname is a family name; the family-name meaning first appeared in 1375....
s or last name
Last Name

"Last Name" is a song composed by country pop singer Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey and Luke Laird. It is the third single from Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride....
s).

Many immigrants
Aliyah

Aliyah refers to Jewish immigration to Greater Israel. The opposite action, Jewish emigration from Israel, is referred to as Yerida ....
 to modern Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 changed their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of galuti (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages. This phenomenon was especially common among Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to Israel, because most of their names were taken later and some were imposed by the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires.






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The Hebraization of surnames (also spelled Hebraicization) (LeAvret, "to Hebraize") is the process of adopting Hebrew family name
Family name

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
s (also called surname
Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases a surname is a family name; the family-name meaning first appeared in 1375....
s or last name
Last Name

"Last Name" is a song composed by country pop singer Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey and Luke Laird. It is the third single from Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride....
s).

Many immigrants
Aliyah

Aliyah refers to Jewish immigration to Greater Israel. The opposite action, Jewish emigration from Israel, is referred to as Yerida ....
 to modern Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 changed their names to Hebrew names, to erase remnants of galuti (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages. This phenomenon was especially common among Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to Israel, because most of their names were taken later and some were imposed by the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Very few Hebrew surnames exist, such as Cohen ('priest') and Levi
Levi

Levi/Levy, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew Levy ??? Tiberian vocalization ; "joining") was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelites of Levites ....
 (one of the tribes of Israel). Names ending with -berg, -stein or -man are often thought of as Jewish, but are of German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 origin, while suffixes such as -sky and -vitz are Slavic
Slavic languages

File:Slavic europe.svgThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia....
.

The Hebraization of surnames is a unique phenomenon to the Hebrew language. This process began as early as the days of the First
First Aliyah

The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionism aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen....
 and Second
Second Aliyah

The Second Aliyah was arguably the most important and influential aliyah. It took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Empire Palestine, mostly from Russia and Poland, some from Yemen....
 Aliyot and continued after the establishment of the State of Israel. The widespread trend towards hebraicization of surnames in the days of the Yishuv
Yishuv

Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv A distinction is sometimes drawn between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv.The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living there before the aliyah of 1882 by the Zionist movement....
 and immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel was based on the claim that a Hebrew name provided a feeling of belonging to the new state. There was also the wish to distance from the lost and dead past.

History


In the Yishuv

Among the Yishuv
Yishuv

Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv A distinction is sometimes drawn between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv.The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living there before the aliyah of 1882 by the Zionist movement....
 (the first to return to Eretz Yisrael — the Land of Israel
Land of Israel

For other uses, see Israel The Land of Israel is the region which, according to the Hebrew Bible, was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson....
), there was a strong feeling of sh'lilat ha'gola (Hebrew: ????? ????? "negation of the diaspora/Exile"), which often included the exchange of Diaspora
Diaspora

The term diaspora refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnicity identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their Settler territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former....
 surnames names (which some regarded as "slave names") for purely Hebrew ones. Part of the Zionist movement, was not only Aliyah
Aliyah

Aliyah refers to Jewish immigration to Greater Israel. The opposite action, Jewish emigration from Israel, is referred to as Yerida ....
 (immigration to Israel) it was also wanting to create an image of an Eretz-Yisraeli Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
 that would be different than the Yiddish speaking, shtetl
Shtetl

A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in pre-The Holocaust Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Poland, Galicia , and Romania....
 living, and perceived weak Diaspora
Diaspora

The term diaspora refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnicity identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their Settler territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former....
 Jew, and these things were a significant part of the people of the First
First Aliyah

The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionism aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen....
 and Second
Second Aliyah

The Second Aliyah was arguably the most important and influential aliyah. It took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Empire Palestine, mostly from Russia and Poland, some from Yemen....
 Aliyot (from the 1880s onwards) and they Hebraized their surnames. By Hebraizing the name, the foreign last name could be cast aside.

Jewish Agency booklet
This process started with individuals like Eliezer ben Yehuda (Perelman) and was adopted by the New Yishuv. Before the foundation of the State of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, in 1944, the Zionist leadership and the National Council
National Council

National Council may refer to:...
 proclaimed it the "Year of naturalization and the Hebrew name". Because of that, a special committee under the chairmanship of Mordechai Nemzabi, the Jewish Agency adviser matters of civilian defense, published a booklet which contained guidelines on the creation on new Hebrew surnames.

Changing a foreign surname to Hebrew:
  1. Change of vocalization: Leib becomes Lev
  2. Change of consonants: Borg becomes Barak
  3. Shortening by omitting the ending: Rosenberg becomes Rosen
  4. Shortening a name with a Hebrew meaning, by omitting the foreign suffix: Yakobovitch (Jacobowitz, Jacobowicz) becomes Ya'acobi
  5. Translating the foreign name into Hebrew according to the meaning: Abramovich (Abramowicz, Abramowitz) becomes Ben Avraham
First names as surnames:
  1. Name of a father or mother who were murdered during the Shoah
    Shoah

    Headline text Shoah is a Hebrew word meaning "disaster" or "conflagration". "The Shoa" or, with the addition of "Ha" , HaShoah is commonly used to refer to the Holocaust....
    , thus: Bat Miriam, Ben Moshe, Devorin
  2. Son or daughter who fell in battle: Avinoam
  3. Brother or sister who were killed or fell: Achimeir
  4. Beloved or admired biblical
    Tanakh

    The Tanakh is the Bible used in Judaism. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew language Acronym and initialism formed from the initial Hebrew alphabet of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim - hence TaNaKh....
     figure: Shaul
    Saul

    Saul or Shaul may also refer to:...
    , David
    David

    David , was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet ....
    i
Change of names by names of places, plants or sites in Eretz Yisrael:
  1. Places or sites: Charmoni, Eilat
    Eilat

    Eilat is Israel's South District city, a busy port as well as a popular resort, located at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba....
    , Gilad
    Gilead

    From the Scriptures, "Gilead" means hill of testimony or mound of witness, , a mountainous region east of the Jordan River, situated in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan....
  2. Plants, especially plants of Eretz Yisrael: Eshel ("orchard", "garden"), Rotem ("desert broom
    Broom (shrub)

    Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the three genera Chamaecytisus, Cytisus and Genista, but also in five other small Genus ....
    ")


After the Establishment of the State

After the Establishment of the State of Israel, there was still the attitude that the hebraicization of family names should continue, in order to get rid of names with a Diaspora sound.

David ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister of Israel

The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and is the most powerful political officer in Israel . He or she wields executive power in the country, and has an official residence in Jerusalem....
 was very committed to the use of the Hebrew language (he changed his surname from Gryn to Ben Gurion) tried to convince as many people to change their surnames into real Hebrew ones. On the signing of Declaration of Independence, Ben-Gurion got Herzl Rosenblum
Herzl Rosenblum

Dr Herzl Rosenblum was an Israeli journalist and politician. A signatory of the Declaration of Independence , he worked as editor of Yedioth Ahronoth for more than 35 years....
 to sign it Herzl Vardi, his pen name
Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of...
 (and later he changed it to his legal name), as Ben-Gurion wanted more Hebrew names on the document. Nine more of the signatories of the document would then go on to Hebraize their name as well.

Ben-Gurion, in an order to the IDF
Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
 soldiers he wrote, "It is desirable that every commanding officer (from Squadron Commander to Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff

A chief of staff is the coordinator of the supporting staff and primary aide to an important individual, such as an rime Minister **Chief of Staff , the head of the Office of the President in the Philippines...
) should change his surname, whether German, English, Slavic
Slavic

Slavic and Slavonic are used interchangeably in English, with the former preferred in U.S. English, and the latter in UK English. The Oxford English Dictionary gives citations of Slavonic back to the mid-17th century, whereas it seems that Slavic only appeared in the 19th century....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 or foreign
Foreign

Foreign may refer to:*Foreign corporation, a corporation that can do business outside its jurisdiction*Foreign key, a constraint in a relational database...
 in general, to a Hebrew surname, in order to be a role model for his soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces must be Hebrew in spirit, vision, and in all internal and external expressions."

A binding order of the same issue was issued to the officials of the state in 1950, and particularly to those who represented the State abroad. A "Committee for Hebrew Names" was established to supervise the implementation of the order, whose task was to assist and advise the choice of a Hebrew name.

Supporters and Opponents

The Hebraization of surnames provoked sharp controversy in the days of the Yishuv
Yishuv

Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv A distinction is sometimes drawn between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv.The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living there before the aliyah of 1882 by the Zionist movement....
 and also after the establishment of the State of Israel.

Supporters
Among the most significant supporters was Yitzhak Ben Zvi (Shimshelevich), leader of the Labor movement
Labor (Israel)

The Israeli Labor Party , generally known in Israel as Avoda is a center-left political party in Israel. It is a social democracy and Labor Zionism party, a member of the Socialist International and an observer member of the Party of European Socialists....
, historian and second President of the State of Israel. He was born in Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
 on 24 November 1884. He studied law in Istanbul together with David Ben Gurion. In 1906 he attended the founding conference of the Poalei Zion and in 1907 he settled in the Land of Israel. He belonged to the founders of the Ahdut ha-Avodah Party, was active in the Haganah
Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
, a member of the National Council
National Council

National Council may refer to:...
, and signed the Declaration of Independence. Ben Zvi died in 1963. Ben Zvi wrote:
Opponents
Alongside the enthusiastic supporters and those who encouraged the Jews who lived in the Land of Israel to change their family name into a Hebrew one, were also opponents of this process who saw it as an act of erasing part of Jewish history
Jewish history

Jewish history is the history of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Jewish culture. Since Jewish history encompasses nearly four thousand years and hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes....
.

One of the opponents of the Hebraization of surnames was Moses Calvary, a writer and teacher. Born in Germany on 1 December 1876, he received a traditional, general, and rabbinical education. He was a member of Ahdut Ha'avodah, an educator in the Meir Shafia youth village, principal of the Hebrew Gymnasium (High School) in Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, and educator in the "Ahava" youth village in Kiryat Bialik. He wrote articles in Hebrew and German. Moses Calvary died in 1944.

Some people were emotically attached to their Diaspora last name, for reasons such as it having noble origins (Hebrew: ?????? Yichus), or for a desire to continue to identify with their ethnic group. There is story of an Israeli diplomat who told David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion

was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel....
, "I will change my name if you can find me one non-Jew named Lifshitz." Others had names that were entirely Hebrew to begin with.

The disagreement about the Hebraization of surnames continued. Many people changed their family names, such as Yigael Sukennik who changed his name to Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archeology, politician, and the second Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces....
, and Levi Shkolnik who changed it to Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol

served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a myocardial infarction in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office....
. Others preserved their foreign surname, such as Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Weizmann

Chaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionism leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was Israeli presidential election, 1949 on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952....
, and Shimon Agranat
Shimon Agranat

Shimon Agranat was the President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1965 until 1976....
.

Later

This trend has moderated with time, after the establishment of the State and the with Hebrew becoming an everyday language. However, even today, people continue to Hebraize their surname, especially those serving in the IDF and Israel's diplomatic missions, representing the State of Israel.

In addition, as tensions between different Jewish ethnic groups arose, some wanted to disidentify with a "stigmatized" ethnic group or to merge into a "collective Israeli identity" and therefore created a desire to Hebraize.

There is also a trend to return to one's roots and preserve traditions unique to each ethnic group. As part of the desire of those who want to return to their roots, there are people who re-adopt the name their family previously abandoned for the sake of "Israeliness", such as Israeli writer Yitzhak Orpaz who restored his family's original family name of "Averbuch".

Process

There were several ways people Hebraized their names.

Translations

Some names were directly translated from its Diaspora name.

Direct translations:
Old New
Goldberg Har-Paz
Schlossberg Har-Segor
Steinberg Har-Even
Rosenstein Even-Shoshan
Herbst Stavi
Silver(man) Caspi


Jewish patronyms:
Others were direct translations of patronymic
Patronymic

A patronym or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor....
 names.
Old New
Meyerson Ben-Meir (means: son of Meir)
Mendelssohn Ben-Menachem (means: son of Menachem) (Yiddish diminutive
Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form, is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment....
: Mendel)
Davidson Ben-David


Toponyms:
Other names were translated from toponyms.
Old New Meaning
Wilner Vilna'i both mean "from Wilna"
Deutsch(er) (means: German in German) Ashkenazi (means: Germany in Medieval Hebrew
Medieval Hebrew

Medieval Hebrew has many features that distinguish it from older forms of Hebrew language . These affect grammar, syntax, sentence structure, and also include a wide variety of new lexical items, which are usually based on older forms....
)


Negation

Other names were the negation of so-called "Ekelnamen" (deliberately insulting or demeaning last names forced upon ancestors by non Jewish officials).
Old New
Luegner (means: liar) Amiti (means: truthful)
Ausubel (means: from garbage) Ben-Tov (means: son of good)
Greif (means: "claw", indicating greed and/or miserliness) Nadiv (means: benefactor)


Phonetic similarity

Other names were Hebraized on their similar sounding to a Biblical place name, Jewish historical figure, or Hebrew word with a nice meaning, though somestimes their phonetic similarity was far-fetched.
Old New
Meyerson Meir (means: brilliant; or named for Rabbi Meir
Rabbi Meir

Rabbi Meir or Reb Meir Baal Haneis was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna. He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the second generation....
)
Gruen Ben-Gurion (historical figure)
Epstein Eilat (place name)
Kalb Gilboa (place name)
Berkovitz Barak (lightning)


Choice between translation and phonetic similarity

Sometimes, there were prevalent options between either translating it, or choosing a name based on similar sound (homophone
Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as Carat , caret, and carrot, or to, two and too....
).
Old Direct translation choice Phonetic similarity choice
Rosen Shoshani, Vardi Rozen (means: count)
Shkolnik Lamdan (means: yeshiva student) Eshkol (means: cluster of grapes)
Feld Sadeh (means: field) Peled (means: steel)


In some cases, a false cognate
False cognate

False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different root . That is, they appear to be or are sometimes considered cognates when in fact they are not....
 could satisfy both options at once.
Old New
Loewe Lavi (means: lion)
Lempel (means: little lamp) Lapid (means: torch)


New

Others chose completely newly chosen names, many times symbolic in nature.
Name Meaning
Ben-Artzi means "son of my land"
Nir means "ploughed field" as dug by a farmer


Kept their name

Others kept their name for several reasons. Sometimes, the reason it was kept was because of its religious nature. For examples, names connected with the Kohen
Kohen

A kohen is a Jew who is a direct male descendant of the Bible Aaron, brother of Moses, with a separate status in Judaism. Another term for the descendants of Aaron are the Aaronites or Aaronids....
 (priesthood) such as (ex. Cohen, Kohn, Kaplan, Sacerdoti, Katz, Azoulai, etc...). Other times it indicated Levite decent such as Levi, Levy, Weil (anagram
Anagram

An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place....
), and Segal (Hebrew acronym). Other times it was synagogue or Jewish community functions such as Gabbai, Chazan, or Rabin.

Others kept their name for its yichus, which gave the bearer more reason not to Hebraize it. For example, Horowitz (famous rabbinical dynasty), Rothschild (famous Jewish banking dynasty), Einstein (famous bearer
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
), or Shaltiel (ancient Sephardic family tracing its origins to King David).

Others kept their name but the name underwent some mutation because they contained sounds that do not exist in Hebrew. Examples include Lando (from "Landau"), and Glober (from "Glauber").

Other "Diaspora" Jewish names are Hebrew to begin with such as Ashkenazi, Yerushalmi, corruptions of Hebrew words, such as Heifetz (from Chafetz), Hebrew acronyms, such as Shalit (from "Sheyihye le'orekh yamim tovim"), or of Aramaic origin, such as Kahane, or Raban.

See also

  • Jewish surname
    Jewish surname

    Jews have historically used Hebrew language patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by either ben- or bat- , and then the father's name....
  • Jewish name
  • Hebrew name
    Hebrew name

    Hebrew names are names that have a Hebrew language origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible. They are mostly used by people living in Judaism or Christianity parts of the world, but some are also adapted to the Islam world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qur'an....
  • Category:Israeli surnames