Origins of Jewish Names
Origins of Jewish Names Commentary by Dr. Gerhard Falk Jewish Names Most Jewish names in this country are derived from Hebrew, German and Yiddish sources or are efforts to find a near English equivalent for an obvious Jewish name. There are of course Jewish names used in the Sephardic community which have no relationship to the German-Yiddish history, which is the heritage of 85% of American Jews. In the ancient world, Jews used Hebrew names related to such prefixes as Eli, El or Jahoo, all connoting G’d. Later, under Greek influence, Greek names were combined with Hebrew or Aramaic names. Thereafter, the Latin language, spoken by the Romans (Latin refers to Latinus, the most ancient king of southern Italy, south of Rome) was influential among Jews and resulted in the Latinization of Jewish names. Among the...