Jewish Patronymic and Metronymic Surnames in Russia by Alexander Beider

Transcription

1 Jewish Patronymic and Metronymic Surnames in Russia by Alexander Beider On several occasions during the early 1900s, elections to Parliament were held in Russia and lists were published of those who voted in the many districts of the empire. Alexander Beider's exhaustive analysis of Jewish surnames in these lists has resulted in a paper that informs us about a broad and complex subset of Jewish surnames known as patronymics and matronymics, family names derived from the given name of a male or female ancestor. Beider presents us with extensive tables of Jewish given names derived from various languages and acquaints us with the numerous ways in which these root names may be combined with Slavic and Germanic suffues to form patronymic and metronymic surnames that are of distinctly Jewish origin. Beider's work is useful to genealogists in at least three respects. 11 It can help pinpoint an immigrant's origin when existing information about his birthplace is imprecise. For example, if Russian immigrant, Abraham Levine, arrived in New York City in 1895, was married in 1897 and naturalized in 1901, the most that any public record from that time period is likely to reveal is simply that he was born in Russia. If, however, his marriage record indicated that his mother's maiden name was Raizkes, one could learn from Beider's research that this surname was associated exclusively with Bialystok and that Abraham Levine was probably born in or near that town. 11 It can assist in determining the given name of the male or female ancestor who was alive during, or immediately preceding, the generation in which the family name was established. For example, if Nathan Dvorkin 's paternal grandfather came from Slonim, he could reasonably conclude that a woman named Dvora was either the wife or the mother of a direct paternal ancestor who was living in Slonim when the family name was adopted. He could also postulate from Beider's paper that his ancestor chose to identify his surname with Dvora because she was the most visible member of the family, active in the town's commercial affairs while her husband worked or studied at home. 11 It can enable an individual to prove, for religious reasons, that he is of Jewish descent when he is already several generations removed from any obvious Jewish origin. We can imagine, for example, the challenge Shlomo Cohen will face trying to convince an Orthodox rabbi to approve his marriage to Christine Ryan-especially after he meets Christine's maternal grandmother, Mary Du.Pont-until the rabbi examines Mrs. DuPont's marriage record, which states that her mother's maiden name was Miringof, a surname that Beider has convincingly demonstrated was a Jewish matronymic from Polotsk! (Randy Daitch) T his article considers the surnames of Russian Jews that are based on given names. This group of surnames is very large and important for a general analysis of Jewish surnames. Some features of Jewish surnames in Russia have been discussed by B.O. Unbegaun (AVOTA YNU, Vol. III, No. 2), but that article treats only some general features of Jewish surnames and contains many mistakes. Since the present article deals with numerous proper names, the transliteration rules must be explained. No Cyrillic and no Hebrew characters are used; all are represented by Latin characters. Although most letter substitutions are obvious, the following substitutions should be noted: 1. For the Cyrillic letters :lic (pronounced as zh in pleasure), A (pronounced as y), x (pronounced as ch in loch), bl (back i), b (the sign designating the softness of the preceding consonant) we used zh,j, kh,y, and 'respectively. The Cyrillic letters 10 and x are represented by yu and ya. 2. The rules of substitutions for capital and small Cyrillic letters are the same but for one exception: the capital Russian E is transcribed as Ye, while the small e is represented by e. 3. For three Yiddish diphthongs, we used oy, ey and ay. Given names are spelled according to Russian transcription, except those having the letter hey (il) in the Yiddish spelling. For these names the letter h is given, although in Russian transcription the letter g is used because of the lack of an equivalent for h in Russian. Therefore, names such as Hersh and Gershon, which are of quite different origins, look similar in the Russian spelling, e.g., Gersh and Gershon. Yiddish transcription of proper names is different from Russian, not only with respect to the h, but also: a. for the final unstressed vowel, which is designated in Yiddish by the letter ayen (Y), and in Russian by a, ya or o; b. before the Yiddish diminutive suffix I in Russian spelling a vowel is added and l is normally palatalized. To palatalize is to modify into a palatal sound, especially to change the gutterals, k, g, etc. by advancing the point of contact between the tongue and the palate. Thus, Velvl becomes Velvel' and Berl becomes Berel'. Such forms correspond not only to Russian transcription, but also to German transcription: Koppel (Yiddish, Kopl), Meisel (Yiddish, Mayzl), etc. All the surnames quoted in the present article are given according Russian spelling. Thus, the method of spelling proper names used here differs from traditional English spelling, but it avoids confusion. So we spell Khaim instead of the more traditional Chaim, Isaak instead of Isaac, Gol'dberg instead of Goldberg, Aronshtejn instead of Aronstein, etc. In several cases, the more familiar spelling is shown in parentheses. Patronymic Surnames Before analyzing patronymic surnames, the given names that were the sources of surnames must be discussed. They may be divided into two groups, sacre.d names, the so-called shemot ha-kadoshim (in Yiddish, mfnemen) and vernacular (or popular) names, the so-calied kinnuim (in Yiddish, oyfmfnemen). The sacred names given to Jewish boys at the brit milah (ritual circumcision) were the names by which men were called to the Torah reading 1 in the synagogue; the popular names were for customary use. The group of shemot hakadoshim is composed of: a. Biblical names: for example, Itskhok, Yakov, Ezra, Noson. 2 b. Names from the Talmud: for example, Meer, Aba, Bentsion, Nakhman, Tankhum. c. Other names from the Hebrew or Aramaic lexicon: such as Khaim, including the later Hebrew calques from Yiddish names, Ar'e from Lejb, Dojv from Ber, Zev from Vol'f, Tsvi A VOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter

2 from Hirsh. [Calque is a linguistic term that refers to a new name that arose after direct translation of the etymological meaning of the original, or source, name.] d. Names of Greek or Roman origin adopted by the Jews, such as Aleksander, Kalonimos and Todros (see Zunz, p. 25). Vernacular Names (Kinnuim) All other names are kinnuim. This group includes: a. Names adopted from the Christians (in some cases, in distorted form): Anshel', Leon, Bendik, Zuskind. b. Names derived not from Loshn-koydesh (sacred language, meaning Hebrew or Aramaic): (1) Names of Romance origin (Bunim, Fajtel', Fajvush); (2) Names of German (or Yiddish) origin (Ber, Lejb, Hirsh, Zusman); (3) Names of Slavic origin (Khlavno, Sobol'). c. European spellings of Biblical names, e.g., the Russian form Moisej, Polish form Mojzhesh (Mojesz in Polish spelling), German form Mozes (Moses in German spell ing) for the Hebrew Mojshe; Solomon and Salomon for the Hebrew Shlomo, the Greek form Elias for Eliya. d. Familiar or pet forms of names: (1) Forms with added diminutive suffixes: Yiddish (German) land Yiddish ele make Berel' from Ber. 3 1fthe full form ends inn, then the suffix becomes dl (or del' in Russian spelling) as in Mendel' from Man. German khen (or chen in Germ an spelling) yields Berkhen from Ber; the Slavic ka, and ko make Berko 4 from Ber and Vol'ko from Vol'f; ik creates Hertsik from Herts; 5 ok makes Borushok from Borukh; ush and ish produce Lejbush and Lejbish from Lejb and Abush from Aba; en 'ka creates Mos(h)en'ka from Mojshe; a oro yield Lejba, Hirsha, Khaimo and Davido, wh ile uta gives us Lejbuta from Lejb. 6 Polish ek makes Fajvushek from Fajvush; Byelorussian ul(ya) produces Hertsulya from Herts; 6 (2) Shortened forms of given names: (a) Forms where the last syllable is dropped such as Men' from Menakhem and Pin' from Pinkhas; (b) Forms with dropped initial letters, such as Kiva from Akiva and Tsalel' from Betsalel'; (3) Names with a diminutive su ttix added to the shortened form : With Slavic suttixes: khno makes Mikhno from Mikhael' and Mokhno from Mojshe; (a)s(h)ka and (a)s(h)ko makes Abrashko from Abram and Shmushka from Shmuel'; s'(ya) creates Avrasya from Avram and Markhasya from Mordekhai; unya 6 makes Avrunya 7 from Avram; echka 6 yields Monechka from Monya which in tum derives from Solomon; with other suffixes given above (in d.(l)) such as Moten'ka from Motel', it in tum coming from Mordekhai, Avruta 7 from Avram, Kivel' from Kiva and earlier from Akiva, Shiko from Shiya and that initially from Iehoshiya (Yehoshiya); syncopated forms with added a such as Vova from Vol'f and Dod a from Dovid. There are also some very rare given names that have two different diminutive suffixes, such as Hershlik 7 from Hersh! and before that Hersh, and Heshel'ko 7 from Heshel', which in tum comes from Iehoshua (Yehoshua). Among diminutive suffixes, some make pet name forms, as ik, echka, en'ka, and ulya. The others make familiar forms like ka and ko. Although the number of different Slavic diminutive suffixes that served 4 to form Jewish names is very great in comparison with the number of German suffixes, it is significantly smaller than the number of different suffixes used by Ukrainian or Byelorussian Christians (see Red'ko, pp ; Biryla). For example, such suffixes used in the names of Christian Slavs as inets, ejko, ojko, os', is', aj, an ', ivk(o), "evk(o)," "aka," "el'," "al'," "ura," "okh(a) and "ukh" were not found in Jewish given names or Jewish surnames. The total number of different kinnium is very great. Several hundred were used in the Russian Pale of Settlement during the 19th century and were important factors in determining the great variety of Jewish surnames. Most of the sacred and popular names used to form Jewish surnames are presented in Table 5. They are drawn from the author's personally researched surname file and also from the list of Jewish given names in Kulisher. Although Jews frequently used double given names, this custom had no great influence on Jewish surnames; double names were seldom used to make a sumame. 11 Analysis of Patronymic Surnames This article focuses only on patronymic surnames that have given names as sources. Other types, those having occupational nouns or nicknames as sources, are beyond the scope of this article. Patronymic surnames may or may not have special additional elements. Table 1 illustrates their distribution for different regions of the Russian Empire. The calculations were made using the lists of electors for Gosudarstvennaya Duma (the Russian parliament) that were published in 1906, 1907 and This table shows data for one representative district for each gubem iya of the Pale of Settlement (see map) as well as for all of Courland, part of modem Latvia. For Minsk and Volhynia, gubemiya calculations were made for two districts since their data are quite different. Such calculations were not performed for Kherson, Poltava, Chemigov, and Yekaterinoslav gubemiyas or for Tavrida since most Jews living there at the beginning of 20th century were descendants of those who migrated during the 19th century and whose family names were, therefore, selected when they lived TABLE 1 PATRONYMICS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS A-Percent of surnames coinciding with names B-Percent of surnames having suffixes C-Total number of patronymics D-Percent of patronymics among all surnames Region A!! Courland Tel'shi (Kovno gub.) Sventsyany (Vilna gub.) Sokolka (Grodno gub.) Novogrudok (Minsk gub.) lgumen (Minsk gub.) Nevel' (Vitebsk gub.) Mstislavl' (Mogilev gub.) Chigirin (Kiev gub.) Ovruch (Volhynia) Lutsk (Volhynia) Letichev (Podolia) Orgeev (Bessarabia) ! AVOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991

3 elsewhere in the Pale. On the other hand, the majority of Jews from regions for which the data are presented in Table 1 were descendants of those who adopted surnames in the same regions at the beginning of 19th century. Given Names as Surnames The first surnames that coincide with given names were not common in the Russian Empire, but they occurred very frequently in Germany. 13 1n German documents up to the 19th century, each Jew was traditionally given two names: his own name and that of his father (see Freudenthal). Thus, German Jews had component names such as Abraham Joseph, Nathan Isaac, etc., in which the second (patronymic) component was the analogue of the later surname. This tradition subsequently influenced the process of adopting surnames in Germany. In Russia, Jewish naming traditions were quite different. Names that were the sources for surnames coinciding with given names may be classified into several groups: 1. Standard names used by Russian Jews at the beginning of the 19th century (Gershon, Abram, Zelik etc.). For this type of name, surnames with patronymic suffixes also exist, and they are more frequent. The familiar and pet forms of standard given names also belong to this group. 2. Names that were rare among Russian Jews, but frequent among German Jews. Some of these names gave rise to surnames with special patronymic elements, for example, Zalkind made Zalkindson, and Zusman made Zusmanovich, the last surnames being very rare. The greatest number of surnames of this group exist only in the same form as the given name, for instance, Aksel'rod, Gejne (from German, Heine), Gutkind and Zuskind. Surnames of this and the preceding group indicate, in general, one of the given names of their first bearer or his father's name. It is also possible that the surname reflects the name of some other relative of its first bearer. 3. German names never used by Jews as given names up to the 19th century, but taken as surnames artificially, making allusion to real Jewish names. In this category are Vol'fgang, and Vol'tke from Vol'f, Fridrikh from Froim. Maybe for other, unknown reasons there are Lyudvig, Val'ter (German, Walter), Ginter (German, Gunter) and Rudol'f. All the surnames of the third group are very rare. The surnames of the first group were common in Sokolka ( 43.5% of all patronymic surnames) and in Tel'shi (42.2%). Those of the second group were 26.3% in Courland and 31.5% in Igumen. In Ovruch, the surnames of this group cover 87.7% of all patronymic surnames, but this is a very special case because of the great freqency of the surname Fridman and some other surnames ending in man. Names Ending in -man The group of patronymic surnames ending in man is very specific and may be divided into three parts: 1. Surnames coinciding with given names, the names being used only in a form having man, e.g., Fridman, Lipman (Libman), Kaufman (Ko(j)fman), Gutman and Litman. 2. Surnames coinciding with given names, the last ones being employed not only with man, but also (and more often) without it: Liberman, Koppel'man, Lejbman, Berman, Falikman, Gershman; 3. Surnames made by adding man to given names: Tsemakhman, Kivman, Iokhel'man (Yokhel'man), Borukhman, Evzel'man, Ajzikman, Shneerman, Yudel'man. In these AVOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991 TABLE2 DISTRIBUTION OF PATRONYMICS HAVING SUFFIXES son ovich OV Region Total~ ~ evich ev!.!! ~ chikchuk!! Courland Tel'shi Sventsyany Novogrudok Igumen Nevel' Mstislavl' Orgeev surnames, the element man does not change their semantics at all. Let us consider the special patronymic elements used in constructing Jewish sumames. 14 The most frequent are Slavic suffixes. Among them are: ovich, 15 frequently used in Lithuania, Courland and Western Byelorussia, especially in Vilna, Raseniai, and Novogrudok: Abramovich, Aronovich, Itskovich, Borukhovich. Because of the German influence, this suffix sometimes was transformed into ovits in Courland and Livonia (two regions of modem Latvia), e.g. Yudelovits and Girshovits. The suffix ov was used frequently in the eastern part of Vitebsk gubemiya and also in Mogilev, Poltava, Chemigov and Kiev gubemiyas, e.g., Pejsakhov, Tsemakhov and Rubinov; in was used in Mogilev gubemiya, e.g., Abkin, Notkin and Arkin. In some surnames, the sufftx in appears also after given names ending in a consonant such as Pejsakhin, Amromin, Ajzikin and maybe Zevin, in contrast to the general rules of its use in Russian or Byelorussian. The suffix skij, or ovskij, was especially frequent in Novogrudok, Slo.nim and Lida in such surnames as Berkovskij, Gershanovskij, Gimpeliovskij, Getsovskij, Senderovskij, Shmaevskij, and Yankelevskij, all from Novogrudok. The suffix uk was used in Pinsk as Lejzeruk, Manashuk, Mishuk, Niselyuk, Sandyuk and Senderuk; in Grodno guberniya were found Yel'konyuk, Benyuk and Yevsyuk; and in the region near Rovno and Dubno in Volhynia, Sukharchuk, Shayuk and Shakhnyuk. The suffix chik was frequent and exclusive in lgumen: Rubinchik, Rafal'chik, Khaimchik, Ekel'chik and Shimanchik; Chuk, was used especially in Minsk guberniya in the form of Fal'chuk, Khaimchuk, Nosanchuk, Tsalelchuk and Zalmonchuk and in Volhynia as Lakhmanchuk and Liberchuk; ik appears as Pinkhasik and Godik. The suffix enko, was used in Kiev gubemiya as Fajbishenko, Shevelenko, Ovseenko, Meerchenko, Motenko, Kiselenko, Kivenko, Usherenko etc. By adding this suffix, some fmal consonants i.n the given name are submitted to palatalization as follows: The k becomes ch as Berko gives Berchenko; kh becomes sh; and Mordukh yields Mordushenko. The suffix sk or shk becomes shch, and Avrus(h)ka gives Avrushchenko. The Byelorussian sufftx enok, sometimes spelled anok, follows the same palatization rules as enko, i.e., Zelik produces Zelichenok.lt appears in the Jewish surnames Shmaenok, Gershanok, Yermanok and Perchanok, all from Bykhov in Mogilev gubemiya. Other Slavic sufftxes are an, as in Davidan, Kopelya.n, Mikhelyan, Shmar'yan and Shmul'yan; on, as in Shragon and 5

4 Davidon; ak as in Shmundak; ets as in Sragets and Froimets; ich or its, as in Majzlich and Grejnits. A second group of suffixes is composed of German or Yiddish elements. Among them are zon, from the German word Sohn meaning son, as in Dodel'zon, Iozel'zon, Kolevzon, Tanel'zon and Zavel'zo-all from Vilkomir; Abramzon, Berenzon, Gershenzon, Mikhel'zon, Natanzon, Ruvinzon, Yukel'zon, and Zejlikzon all come from Volhynia. In many surnames, this element is spelled son, the Russian transliteration of the German spelling, e.g., Mikhel'son, Natanson, Vul'fson and Yakobson frequently used in Courland and Livonia and in neighbouring Vitebsk guberniya. The Yiddish zun, as in Movshenzun, Shliomenzun and Yankel'zun, was used in the Orissa district of Vitebsk guberniya. In the Vladimir and Ostrog districts of Volhynia were found Meerzun, Mendel'zun, Paltenzun, Peretszun and Sanezun. Kind, meaning child in German and Yiddish, was used especially in Byelorussia as Khononkind, Fishkind, Volkind, and Aronskind. The suffix s was found especially in Kovno guberniya as Zal'mens, Iozeps (Jozeps), Joel's (Joel's), Kalmens and Yankel'-all from Kovno city. In Minsk guberniya were ldel's, Notes, Orens and Shimyans-all from Slutsk and in Bessarabia Mishkis, Iojnes (Yojnes), Motlis and Yukili-all from Orgeev.The suffix er produced Zal'kinder, Ziskinder and Shmuner; Shtam, from the German stamm meaning descendant of, was used in Courland as Bernshtam, Aronshtam, Eliasshtam, Izrael'shtam, and Mozesshtam. Since there is no sound corresponding to the German letter h in the Russian alphabet, this letter is replaced systematically by g. Some other elements in surnames reflect this transposition. Th.e suffix Gof, from the German word Hof meaning court, led to Berngof, Kisel'gof and Fal'kengo-all from Vitebsk guberniya or Courland. Gauz, from the German word Haus meaning house, was used in Vitebsk guberniya (especially in Polotsk and Lepel') and neighbouring Livonia, as Abezgauz, Vigdergauz and Bergauz. The suffix gejm, from the Yiddish heym or German Heim, meaning house or family, created Berngejm in Courland and Berkengejm in Dvinsk. The only Hebrew patronymic suffix is i, as in ltskhoki and Tsioni. In some surnames, the Semitic prefixes meaning son were used, e.g. the Hebrew ben made Benyakov, Benar'e and Bend avid; the Aramaic bar made Baryudin from Bar Iehuda (Yehuda). The interesting Russian calque of these prefixes appears in the surname Syn-Meer. In Courland, the Latin suffix i appears in the surname Yakobi. Table 2 represents the distribution of patronymic surnames with suffixes for different regions of the Russian Empire. The calculations were made for those regions listed in Table 1 in which the total number of patronymic surnames M with suffixes is more then 50. For suffixes not listed in Table 2, the data by region are as follows: COURLAND: shtam, 3.2%; Latin suffix i, 0.9%; er, 0.3%; enko, 0.2%;gauz, 0.2%; IGUMEN: an, 0.5%; NEVEL': enok and gauz, each 1.6%; Hebrew suffix i, 4.1 %; shtam and kind, each - 0.8%; MSTISI.AVL': enok, 3.6%; 0RGEEV: uk, 6.4%; enko, 1.3%. One group of elements with a patronymic function are possessive suffixes, e.g., ov, in, and s. A second category is specifically patronymic, including ovich, ich, zon, and kind. A third group was initially diminutive suffixes, but at the beginning of the 19th century served as patronymic suffixes: enko, enok, uk, chuk, ik, chik, and ets. Each of these elements gives the meaning the son of X Elements of German or Yiddish origin such as gof, gauz, or gejm impart a meaning close to "the family of X." Surnames that end in berg, fel'd, shtejn, or tar and have Jewish given names as the first part, e.g., Girshberg, Eliasberg, Gertsfel'd, Girshfel'd, Aronshtejn, Borukhshtejn, Libertal' and Mejertal' should be considered as "patronymicornamental" names since they were formed artificially by adding ornamental extensions to given names of the first bearers or of their fathers. Such surnames were common only in Courland. Until 1893, German was used as an official language in Courland, and it seems quite plausible that the methods of forming family names were similar to those in use in neighbouring Prussia. In the article by Horwitz, there are examples of forming surnames in F1atow in Western Prussia at the beginning of 19th century that confirm this point of view. Thus, in F1atow the surname Hertzfeld was taken by a Jew formerly called Lewin Herts, the surname Hirschfeld was taken by the former Hirsch Abraham (i.e. Hirsch, the son of Abraham), Loewenstein was taken by Jacob Lewin (i.e. Jacob, the son of Lewin), Joachimsthal by Manassa Joachim etc. The element bejn, from the German Bein or the Yiddish word for bone, also appears in surnames having a first part coinciding with a given name: e.g., Vol'tbejn, Gershbejn and Fishbejn. It is possible that the surnames ending in bejn signify "descendant of X," but it is also possible that bejn in these cases is simply an ornamental extension added to given names or to the nouns volf (wolf), hersh (stag), or fish as in such surnames as Vajsbejn and Shvartsbejn! 6 Finally, it should be mentioned that some of the surnames that coincide with names of animals in Slavic languages seem to be formed as translations of Jewish given names, e.g. Golub from Iojna, Medved' from Ber, Yelin from Hirsh (Hersh), Volk from Vol'f, and Sokol from Fal'k. Jewish Metronymic Surnames in Russia etronymic surnames (matronymics), a very important group of Russian-Jewish surnames, are rare among other European peoples. Only a few matronymics are found among the Slavic people who inhabited the same areas as the Jews, except for some surnames from the western Ukraine, an area that is not relevant to this article since it did not become part of the Soviet Union until after World War II. Among non-jewish Russians, many matronymics are derived from familiar forms of female given names, such as Mashkin, Kat'kin, etc. These surnames generally were adopted by illegitimate children. That being so, why were matronymics so frequent among the Jews? It is not sufficient to claim that they represent merely the great importance attached to the mother in Jewish tradition, i.e., the fact that by Jewish l aw, one's Jewishness is transmitted through the maternal line. The principal reason may be found by analyzing the economic 6 A VOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991

5 and social structure of the Jewish community in the 19th century Russian Empire. At this time, Jewish women occupied very important commercial roles. Many of the Jewish men were artisans working at home, but the women often could be found trading in little shops or in the marketplaces. Many were better known to the inhabitants of a town than were their husbands. In addition, for many husbands the only occupation was religious study, so again, the man was less we11 known than his working wife. It is no surprise, therefore, that nicknames were often made using the names of one's mother (or wife). The tradition of such nicknames is very important in the genesis of Jewish surnames at the beginning of 19th century. Another factor influencing the genesis of metronymic surnames was the rise of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, which gave women an honored position. Given Names as Sources of Surnames Before analyzing surnames of matronymic origin, let us discuss the given names that were the sources of such surnames. Because Jewish women are not called up to the Torah, the situation with their given names is different from that of male names; there are neither shemot ha-kadoshim (sacred names) nor kinnuim (vernacular names). All female names are equal from the religious viewpoint. As a result, we can classify given names only by origin: 1. Biblical names: Sora, Rivka, Shifra, Khava; 2. Names of Hebrew origin: Khaya, Ketsina, Maika; 3. Names of Romance language origin: Bejla, Drejzya, Rika; 4. Names of German origin: Golda, Zel'da, Guta, Mina; 5. Names of Slavic origin: Chama, Zlata, Badana. As with male given names, familiar and pet forms of names were frequently used. These can be divided into the following groups: 1. Forms with a diminutive suffix; Shortened forms of given names; 3. Names with a diminutive suffix added to a shortened form. Forms with a Diminutive Suffix Yiddish names form diminutives by adding either l at the end or ele, both giving el' in the Russian spelling. Examples are Rodel' for Rod a and Khanel' for Khan a. If the full form has n as the final consonant, then the suffix becomes dl (del' in Russian spelling). Some examples of this type are Shejndel' for Shejna, Mindel' for Mina and Krejndel' for Krejna. The shortened forms of such diminutives 17 gave rise to names with various other endings such as "dya" as in Shejndya, Mindya, Krejndya. 19 Various other Slavic endings added to diminutives produced variations of these names. For example, the ending ka makes Khajka from Khaya, Khavka from Khava; tsa and cha produce Khantsa from Khana, Khavcha from Khava; ushka creates Dobrushka from Dobra; echka, ichka, and ochka, make Leechka from Leya, Hanestska from Hana, Bejlicha from Bejla, Frejdichka from Frejda, Sorochka from Sora and Dvorochka from Dvojra; en 'ka gives us Basen'ka from Basya; and ulya makes Hanulya 7 from Han a. Adding uta makes Khanuta from Khana. 7 Shortened Forms of Given Names There are two types of shortened names, those in which the endings have been dropped, as in Tsipa for Tsipora and Mira for Miriam, and those made by dropping the initial In 1RR Jcws livina in rural :~ re as of Pale were fo n:ed 10 leave their homes :tnd live i towns or townle r.s f.rlllt'lls) in the Pa le. 2j0,000 Jews lh ing alonll' the western frontier of Ru"ia were also moved into the P11le Jews livin~,: ca.'t of the Pale were drive n into the P"h: hy Towns within the P:tle barred to Jc.,. s without special residence permits. The Pale of Settlement. From Atlas of Jewish History, by Martin Gilbert. Reprinted with permission. letters, producing forms like Tsina for Ketsina and Dana for Bad ana. Sometimes names were produced by adding a diminutive suffix to an already shortened name. Some use the suffixes noted above, e.g. Rivcha from Rivka, Mal'tsa from Maika, Estulya from Ester, 7 Tsipka from Tsipora, Rivlya from Rivka and Yudashka from Yehudis. The Slavic suffix khna makes Vikhna from Vital'; the Slavic ending sya or sha 6 makes Khasya from Khana, Risya from Rivka, Yudasya from Yehudis and Mar'yash from Mariam. The suffix nya gives Manya from Mariam. 20 Some given names have two different diminutive suffixes, e.g., names to which ska is added to an already diminutive form. Roska comes from Rosya and before that Rokhel', Leska from Lesya which in tum derives from Leya, Khaska from Khasya taken from Khana. The great variety of familiar and pet forms of given names existing at the beginning of the 19th century in the Russian Pale of Settlement was a very important factor in the adoption of Jewish surnames. Some of the female given names that served to form Jewish family names are presented in Table 6. They are drawn both from the author's personally compiled surname list, as well as from Kulisher's list of Jewish given names. The double names frequently used by Jews in the Russian AVOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter

6 Empire were seldom used to make a surname. There are only a few known examples, e.g., Gol'd(sobel'). There are also a few surnames with metronymic suffrxes derived from double names, e.g. Pesi(rivkis) and Gol'd(tsejtin). Analysis of Metronymic Surnames Surnames derived from female given names may or may not have special additional elements. The first type was very rare in the Russian Empire except for Lithuania: Drazne, Fejgel', Maika, Mer'yash, Rajkhel', Revze, Rode, Tauba, Tsive, Zisle. The most frequently employed elements appearing in Jewish surnames derived from female given names are Slavic suffrxes. Among them are: in as in Khanin, Tsejtlin, Shifrin and Rokhlin. The suffrx ovich, used especially in Kovno guberniya, produced Dvorkovich, Esterovich, Fejgeliovich, Rejzelovich and Rivkovich. All of these came from Kovno city or Raseniai. The I gum en district of Minsk guberniya produced Miromovich, Rajkhlevich, Rodkovich, Yachnovich and Zel'dovich; ov, used in Byelorussia and uthuania made Perlov, Zel'dov, Tomarov, Estrov and Iokhvidov. The suffrx ichor its gave us Khavich, Perlich, Tojbich, Khinich, Yakhnich and Dishlits. The suffrx uk created Bashuk, Krinyuk, Mindyuk, Rasyuk, Rodyuk, all from Pinsk. Dobruk, Genyuk, Khasyuk, Shejnyuk, Slavuk, and Yakhnyuk are additional examples of this form. The suffrx skij and the variant forms anskij, inskij, ovskij made Gol'dansky and Zislyanskij, both of which come from Vilna guberniya, and also Ejdlyanskij, Khainskij, Khavinskij and Menukhovskij. The suffrx chuk gave us Bebchuk and Mirchuk in Volhynia, Khinchuk in Kiev guberniya and Sirchuk and Nechamchuk from Pinsk. The suffrx ets used in Byelorussia and Lithuania is seen in Slovets, Leets and Goldets. The suffrx chik resulted in Mar'yamchik, Tomarchik, and Nechamchik. The suffrx enko is seen in numerous surnames from Kiev guberniya as in Slovenko, Lejchenko, Vikhnenko, Goldenko. The suffrx enok forms Tsipenok and Tomarchenok. The suffrx ak used in the Ukraine, leads to Rukhlyak, Privak, Khayak, Shprintsak. The suffrx un also used in the Ukraine gives us Ryvchun, Firun, and Livshun; an produced Tsivian, Tsil'yan in Courland while Margulyan is from Volhynia. The suffix on makes Shifron, Zel'don and Libon. The Possessive Sutllx -in The Slavic suffrx that appears most frequently is in, the Russian and Byelorussian possessive suffrx that is added if a word ends in a or ya. The great frequency of such matronymics from Byelorussia, especially from Mogilev guberniya, is explained by the fact that almost all female given names end in these vowels. In the Ukraine, surnames ending in in were rare, and when they occurred, most probably belonged to migrants from Byelorussia. There are, however, a few cases of such surnames that clearly originated in the Ukraine. For instance, there are such surnames as Rukhlin or Tublin that have as their sources forms of names specific to the Ukraine-Rukhlya and Tublya. Many surnames ending in in were formed from diminutives having the suffrx ka. Thus we have the series of names that end in kin: Khavkin, Khajkin, Lejkin, etc. Because of their phonetic similarity, this series is often confused with surnames that end in kind. In many cases, we cannot be certain if such surnames as Rokhkind and Rokhkin, Khaskin 8 and Khaskind are of the same or different derivations. The problem of differentiation becomes very difficult because the surnames ending in kind such as Etkind, Rejzenkind, Ejdel'kind, Yachkind, Peskind, and Rashkind are found especially in uthuania and Byelorussia, in the same region that the surnames ending in kin are found most often. They were the most frequent in the Borisov district of Minsk guberniya, e.g. Beskind, Baskind, Belkind, Dvorkind, Mirkind, and Khajkind. The Possessive Suffix -s The most frequently used Yiddish (German) morpheme is the possessive suffrx s. [A morpheme is the minimal grammatical unit of a language, constituting a word or meaningful part of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts, for example, "the," or "ed" at the end of a word like "waited."] Surnames ending in es correspond to the Yiddish transcription, i.e. a given name ending in e plus the suffrx s. Such names were common in Grodno and Kovno guberniya, such as: Dines, Khaves, Kreshes, Leshes, Rajzkes, Rashkes, Sorochkes, Taubkes, Tsines, all come from Bialystok; Bubkes, Dob(k)es, Mushkes, Riveles, Ro(j)zes, Tsejtles, Shoshes, El'kes all come from Brest; E(i)des, ltes, Khases, Khieskes, Lipshes, Mikhles, Tsises are all from Kovno guberniya. The most common matronymics ending ins were found in the Southern Ukraine and in Bessarabia. In this region, they appear normally as a surname ending in is: El'kis, Fradis, Khanis, Khin'kis, Masis, Makhlis, Pesis, Rekhlis, Ronis, Ruzis, Ryvkis, Suris, Taubis, Tubis, Tylis, Yakhni-all from the Balta district of Podolia. In some matronymics, we have neither es nor is but us as in El'kus, Frejdus, Khinkus, Malkus, or even os producing Brajnos and Rodos. Among the other German or Yiddish elements used in surnames are: zon for Basinzon, Rozenzon, Blyumzon, Gol'dzon and its variant son, very frequently used in Vitebsk guberniya and the northern part of Mogilev guberniya, e.g., Khieninson, Yuchvidson, Lib(in)son, Painson, Roninson, Sprintsson, Tamarinson, Teminson, Tsiperson, Tsirilso-all from Vitebsk; Genenson, Leenson and Tumarinson all come from Orsha. Surnames having the Yiddish morpheme zun appear very rarely, but one does find Khae.zun in Vladimir Volynski and Gol'dzun in Pinsk. If the given name ends in a vowel, then generally a connecting n is used between the name and zon, or son, but there are many exceptions such as Bejlezon, Fejgezon, Khanezon, Khavezon, Malezon, and Sorezo,-all from Kovno guberniya. The suffrx er leads to Sprintser, Krejner, Frumker and Rivker. The suffrxgofmade Miringof,Itingof, Etingof, all from Polotsk in Vitebsk guberniya. The suffix gauz leads to Rajkhel'gauz and Ejdel'gauz and gejm made Frejdgejm. There is a group of surnames ending in man with female given names as their roots. In these cases, the second meaning of the Yiddish word man, husband, was used. So for example, Rojzenman signifies '"husband of Rojze (or Rojza)." In many surnames of this group, the fmal vowel of the female name is dropped and we have Rysman and Rivman, coming from the given names Rysya and Riva respectively. In some surnames, the Yiddish connectives s or n were used as in Frejdisman, Khashesman, Rivesman or Rojzenman. Surnames in which AVOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991

7 TABLE3 MATRONYMICS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS Percent of Total matronymics number of among all Region matronymics surnames Courland Tel's)li Sventsyany Sokolka Novogrudok Igumen Nevel' Ms tislavl' Chigirin Ovruch Lutsk Letichev Orgeev man was added directly to a given name are very rare, although there are Cherneman and Kejleman, both from Kovno guberniya. Apart from the surnames discussed above, created by adding "man," surnames having other suffixes may also designate not "son of X," but "husband of X." This is true particularly of the possessive suffixes in and s. I found no examples in the data I researched, but in 19th-century Yiddish literature, there are nicknames made using this pattern. 17 Since it is true for nicknames, this pattern could also be used for forming surnames. It is possible also that some surnames having possessive suffixes designate "son-in-law of X," as in the name of the famous rabbi, Samuel Edels (see EJ, vol. 6, p. 363). Matronymics by Region Table 3 gives the number and the percent of matronyrnics in different regions of the Russian Empire at the beginning of 20th century. The regions chosen are the same as those in Table 1. Table 4 presents the distribution of matronyrnics by different suffixes. As with Table 2, calculations in Table 3 were made for those regions in which the total number of metronymic surnames is greater than 50. Insofar as the suffixes not listed in Table 3 are concerned, the data are the following: Igumen: ov (5.4%); chik (1.4%); its and ets (both 0.7%) Mstislavl': ich (0.4%) Orgeev: uk (5.0%) Not only the frequency of different metronyrnic suffixes varies from region to region, but also the frequency of using different female given names. For example, in the Letichev district of Podolia at the beginning of the 20th century, there were five different surnames made from Rukhlya: Rukhlin, Rukhlis, Rukhlevich, Rukhlyak, Rukhel'man and also Rukhtsman, made from Rukhtsa, the pet form of the same name. For other districts, we normally have no more than two different surnames made from the same given name, the case of a single surname being the most frequent. With some surnames ending in shtejn the first part represents the female given name as in Rudshtejn and Rakhelshtejn. There are also a great number of surnames beginning with Gol'd, Bl(y)um, Grin, Roz, Perel', Finkel' or Glik, i.e. the AVOTAYNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991 first part coinciding with given names. It is possible that in some cases these surnames may be treated as "metronymicornamental", i.e. the first bearers of these surnames were making an allusion to the names of some of their female relatives adding the ornamental extensions shtejn, "berg" etc. to female given names. 22 It is certain also that these kinds of allusions were made in surnames in which the first part coincides with the male name. (See the above discussion of "patronymic-ornamental" surnames.) These arguments, however, are totally insufficient for concluding that the majority of surnames beginning with Gol'd, Bl(y)um, Grin, Ro(j)ze, etc., have any connection with female given names. On the contrary, except in a few cases, such a connection does not exist in the Russian Empire. An analysis of compound ornamental surnames forces this conclusion. Considering this group of surnames, we fmd that parallel to the series Gol'd, there is a series Zil'ber, parallel to the series Grin, a series Vajs, Shvarts, Ro(j)t; parallel to the series Ro(j)z or Bl(y)um, a series Vajn. In al1 these cases, the second series is very similar to the first since: 1. in them, the first parts are semantically close; 2. almost all the existing second parts in them are identical, but there are no given names Zil'ber, Vajs, Vajn etc., so in the group of surnames in question gol'd must simply signify "gold,"; grin, "green"; bl(y)um, "flower''; etc. There is also another reason for such a conclusion-the relative frequency with which the different first parts of these names appear in our data. Evidently, the most frequent is Gol'd, but there is no evidence indicating that the name Golda was so frequent in the Russian Empire. Neither are we dealing, however, with an accidental coincidence of the first parts of these surnames with female given names. The cause of this coincidence is quite clear-the beautiful semantics of the words from which the names and the surnames were formed. Semantics always affected the parental choice of a given name for girls, not only among Jews, but also among other ethnic groups. This in turn very much affected the choice of Jewish surnames at the beginning of 19th century. Thus, it is no surprise that the names and surnames in question were made from the lexicon designating the precious metal or stones (Gol'd, Perel'), fl owers (Ro(j)ze, Bl(y)um) or such words as Glik (happiness) or Finkel' (little spark). Female given names are the most important sources for matronyrnics, but there are also some other matronymics, those formed from nicknames. The most numerous is the group of surnames derived from female nicknames, which, in turn, were formed from the names of their husbands. These nicknames are always formed using the Slavic suffixes ikha or ka (in Yiddish, ikhe, and ke). Thus, for instance, Senderikhin TABLE 4 DISTRIBUTION OF MATRONYMICS Percent of surnames having special suffixes son zon ~ man kind!.!! ovich none Tel'shi Igumen Nevel' Mstislavl' Letichev Orgeev

8 designates "the son of Senderikha (Sender's wife)," Benditkis, "the son of Benditke (Bendit's wife)." Other examples of such surnames are Lemeliches, Mendelikhes, Menikhis, Tsudechkis and Zelikhes. In one surname, palatalization of kh to sh took place, and Naftalishin came from Naftalikha. This phonetic change can be found in all Western Ukrainian surnames of the similar origin, e. g., Vasilishin, Romanishin, Mikhalchishin etc. There is also one Jewish surname that seems to be based on a female nickname formed in tum from a male nickname: Turchikhin "the son of Turchikha (wife of Turek or Turok)." In addition to the surnames discussed above, there are also some other nicknames of Jewish women that served as sources for surnames: Litovkis (from "IJtovka, the woman migrant from IJthuania"),Polyachkin (from "Polyachka, the migrant from Poland") and Drabkin (from "drabke, the loose woman" in Yiddish). NOTES 1. Generally, in any given source, either the sacred or the popular name is found. In divorce records, both the sacred and the vernacular names were recorded simultaneously (Weinreich, p. 270). Another example is found in Arim Beimahol Be Israel, 1955, Vol. 6, pp There, the given names and patronymics of some Brody inhabitants are recorded in both Hebrew and Polish spellings. Those in Hebrew are the sacred names; those in Polish are the vernacular names. 2. The names are given according to Russian transcription, except those having the letter hey (il) in the Yiddish spelling. For these names the letter h is given, although in Russian If Jewish surnames are considered in connection with these two cases, then it may be seen that Russian transcription is closely related to surnames. For example, the Slavic possessive suffix in is added only after a or ya and never after e. Taking into consideration the great number of Jewish surnames ending in in whose sources were given names ending in a vowel, we know that the final vowel was a rather than e. Secondly, the diminutive forms with the suffix I, which were used in forming surnames have el': Fishel' (Yiddish, Fishl), ldel' (Yiddish, ldl), etc. Such forms correspond not only to Russian transcription, but also to the German transcription; Koppel (Yiddish, Kopl), Meisel (Yiddish, Majzl), etc. Biblical names used b' f1. t,, I t,.,."' '' Boris FeJdbiyum CoUection C> 1983 Portion of the 1893 city map of Odessa, Ukraine, showing numerous Jewish names as land owners. A"ows point to the surnames Brodsky, Eiken, Feller, Gertsenshtein, Getser, Greenberg, Gurovich, /sak.ovich, Khesin, Klein, Leviton, Maas, Margulis, Rabinovich, Raphalovich, Ratner, Rauberger, Santsenbacker, Shimonovsky, Shtam, Shtapelberg, Shvarts, Tamapolsky, Tsimmerman, Tum, Vilkins and Zabludovsky. transcription the letter g is used because of the lack of an equivalent for h in the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, names such as Hersh and Gershon, which are of quite different origins, look similar in the Russian spelling, e.g., Gersh and Gershon. The Yiddish transcription is different from Russian, not only with respect to the h, but also: a. for the final vowel, which is designated in Yiddish by the letter ayen (ll), and in Russian by a or o; b. before the Yiddish lorn. In Russian a vowel is added and lis normally palatized. (Yontl becomes Yontel' and Berl becomes Berel'). in this article are written according to the tradi tiona! Ashkenazic pronunciation of Hebrew, i.e., Toyv for the contemporary Hebrew Tov, Noson for Natan, Itskhok for ltskhak, etc. Ashkenazic pronunciation differs from Sephardic (which gave rise to contemporary Hebrew phonetics) in many vowels and one consonant. The consonant is lov, which is always pronounced in Sephardic Hebrew as I, but in Ashkenazic Hebrew as s or 1, depending on the presence of the dogesh sign. Given names of Jews in the Pale of Settlement were pronounced according to general Ashkenazic rules. Some authors think that the name Note (nota) has Nathan as its source. But Nathan in Ashkenazic Hebrew is Noson. In addition, Note, in the Hebrew spelling, has the letter les (U) for 1, not lov (n) as does Nathan. This signifies that possibly Note and Nathan (Noson) are of quite different origins. 3. In Yiddish, there are two diminutive variants. One is formed by adding I or ele to the end of the name; the other, being more diminutive, is called " iminutive" in some linguistic studies (Weinreich, p. 522). In the Russian spelling of Jewish surnames, we find neither l nor ele, but el'. Conforming to general rules of Yiddish, the adding of the diminutive suffix I may give rise also to root vowel modification such as a becoming e, o becoming e, and u becoming i. (This Yiddish pattern corresponds to the German diacritical mark umlaut). Thus, David gave rise to Devel' and later Tevel', while Nusin was changed to Nisei', etc. 4. The word Slavic, as used in this article, means Ukrainian, Byelorussian or Polish, because only these languages were coterritorial 10 AVOTAYNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter 1991

9 with the Jews in the Pale of Settlement, and the given diminutive suffixes are found in all these languages (see Biryla, Red'ko and Bystron). 5. The suffix ik is diminutive in origin, but in surnames, it may also be employed as a patronymic. If, for the surnames ending in ik, one can find similar names with an explicit patronymic suffix such as ovich, ov, or zon, etc., in that case the suffix ik is likely to be the diminutive. On the contrary, if such surnames do!!2! exist, then, in the surname in question, ik is patronymic in nature, as in Pinkhasik and Godik. Evidently, this rule is not strict and only the principle of preference applies. 6. This suffix may possibly be added also to the full form of a given name, but there is no confirmation of that. 7. This form of the given name has not be found explicitly, but has been reconstructed from Jewish surnames. 8. The first known variant of this name is Fischlin, with the German diminutive suffix lin. This form was not preserved, but it gave rise to Fischel, Fishl and Fishel'. The full form Fish is more recent. 9. The name Herts has Middle-High German Hirz as its source, which is equivalent to the New German Hirsch (in Yiddish, Hirsh or Hersh). 10. The name Kalman in rabbinic tradition was related to Kalonimos, but possibly these two names are related only phonetically; the name Kalman is of German origin. 11. A few examples of such surnames are: Savel'vol'f, Dudel'zak and maybe also Vol'f-Izrail'. The hyphenated name Gur-Ar'e (Gurari) must be treated apart from double names since the combination of these two words is a definite lexical unit in Hebrew and since the name Gur is not found among Russian Jews. The surname Ras hragovich has the double name Uri-Shraga as its source. This name was common since its two parts are related semantically; they designate light and candle respectively. 12. To estimate what percent of the Jewish population took part in the elections, we may consider one example At the beginning of the 20th century about 40,000 Jews lived in the town of Zhitomir. There were about 2,500 Jewish electors in 1907, or more than six percent of the total. When one considers the fact that Jewish families of that time usually had many children, it is clear that, for the analysis of Jewish surnames, the lists may be considered statistically representative of the total Jewish population. 13. Of the 20 surnames that appeared most frequently among German Jews at the beginning of the 20th century, nine coincide with the given names: Maier (Meyer), Wolf(f), Heimann, Hirsh, Baer, Lewi(e)n, Salomon, Marx and Simon. (see G. Meyer-Erlach, "Die 60 Hiiufigsten Jiidischen Familiennamen" in: Judische Familien Forschung, 1932, heft 32, pp Slavic suffixes generally were used by both Jews and Christians in the same areas, but there are some differences in the frequency of usage. For example, among the Byelorussians, the suffix skij is most frequent near Dvinsk (see Biryla), but among the Byelorussian Jews, it is most common in the region that includes such towns as Novogrudok, Lida and Slonim. 15. The sufftx evich, which appears in many surnames, (e.g., Kopelevich and Izrailevich) is simply a variant of ovich. According to the rules of Slavic morphology, ovich becomes evich if the word to which it is added ends in a, ya or a palatalized consonant. This rule is generally applicable to Jewish surnames as well. The same rule applies for such suffix transformations as ev from ov, evskij from ovskij, yan from an, and yuk from uk. In Western Byelorussia and Lithuania, palatization yields not only surnames ending in evich, but also surnames ending in iovich such as Fajveliovich, Yoseliovich, Mesheliovich and Shebsheliovich-all from Novogrudok. Micheliovich, Niseliovich come from Ponevezh. 16. The surname Fishbejn may be also derived from the German or Yiddish word for ''whalebone". 17. For instance, some examples of such nicknames appear in the works by Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem: Alter Pesin, the son of Pesya (Vol. 1, p. 257); Leyvi Zlatin, the husband of Zlata (Vol. 1, p. 165); Khaim Khaykin, the husband of Khayka (Vol. 4, p. 357). 18. In Russian transcription, the diminutive forms of female given names having the suffix I appear in two variants: names ending in e/' or lya, such as Reyzel' and Reyzlya, Tsirel' and Tsirlya, Gnendel' and Gnendlya, etc. 19. The diminutives ending in ka were so widespread that in some names having ka in the full form, this syllable was reinterpreted as the native diminutive suffix. As a result, such "full" form as Riva came from the non-diminutive, but misunderstood name, Rivka, and Mala similarly came from Maika. The same procedure of reinterpretation took place in such names as Yentel', Perel' or Eydel' to yield such forms as Yenta, Pera and Eydya, i.e., forms without the German (or Yiddish) diminutive suffix/. 20. The name Manya among Jewish women seems to have been borrowed from coterritorial Christians rather than being formed directly from Mariam. There is no confirmation of this, however. 21. Such forms as Braina and Taiba may be derived not directly from the German variants Braun and Taube, but may be the shortened forms of Braindl and Toibl-<liminutives from Yiddish forms of these names (Weinreich, p. 635). It is worth noticing that the Yiddish forms of these names are more recent than the German ones. The first confirmed forms of the names in question are the derivatives of Middle-High German brun and rube (Salfeld, pp. 391, 485), but later the Yiddish forms replaced the German ones. The same is true for some other names of German origin, such as Eidel', Freida and Sheina-<lerivatives corresponding to adel, vrode and schone (Salfeld, pp. 392, 394, 413). 22. For instance, it seems to be the case in Siedlce guberniya (Poland). In the book Vsia Rossiia (St. Petersburg,1901) the following series is found for this guberniya: Gol'dberg, Grinberg, Gliksberg, Eidel'sberg, and Shul'berg. REFERENCES EJ-Encyclopaedialudaica. Jerusalem, Biryla, M. V. Belaruskaya antrapanimiya. Part 2: Suchasnyya belaruskiya prozvishchy. Minsk, Bystron, J.S. Nazwiska polski e. Warszawa, Freudenthal, M. Leipziger Messgaeste. Frankfurt-am-Main, Harkavy, A. Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary. 1928, pp Horwitz, L. "Familiennamen a us Westpreussen." Inludische Familien Forschung, 1924, heft 1, pp Kulisher, I. I. Sbomik dlya soglasovaniya raznovidnostej imen... Zhitomir, Red'ko, Yu. K. Suchasni ukrains'ki prizvyshcha. Kiev, Salfeld, S. Das Martyrologium des Nuemberger Memorbuches. Berlin, Shalom-Aleichem. Sobranie sochinenij v 6 tomakh. Moscow, Weinreich, M. History of the Yiddish language. University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London, Zunz, L. "Namen der Juden." Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 2, pp Berlin, Alexander Beider has been studying the etymology and geographic distribution of Russian Jewish family names since He is currently preparing a book on the subject which will be published by AVOT A YNU next year. It will contain a dictionary of more than 40,000 family names plus articles on different aspects of Jewish family names. Reider, who has a PhD in applied mathematics, is a Russian emigre to France where he is a computer scientist. AVOTA YNU Volume VII, Number 4 Winter