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Jewish names Until a few hundred years ago, Jews followed no tradition of family names, but used patronymics, i.e., the last name of a child was his/her father's name, prefixed by 'ben' or 'bat'. For example, a boy named Joseph of a father named Isaac would be called Joseph ben Isaac. Isaac's daughter Esther would be called Esther bat Isaac. When northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularily in Austria, Prussia and Russia) were forced to adopt Germanic names. Joseph II issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city mayors were to chose the name for every Jewish family. For names related to precious metals and flowers a fee was gathered, the free of charge surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals. Many took Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g. Goldstein, 'Gold-smith'), from their father (e.g. Jacobson), or from location (e.g. Berliner, Warszawski or Pinsker). In Prussia special military commissions were created to chose the names. It became common that the poorer Jews were forced to addopt derogatory, offensive or simply bizarre names. Among those created by E.T.A. Hoffman were: * Ochsenschwanz - Oxtail * Temperaturwechsel - Temperatureglitch * Kanalgeruch - Sewerstink * Signmirwas - Singmesomething The Jews of Poland adopted names much earlier. Those who were adopted by a szlachta family usually changed the name to that of the family. Christened Jews usually adopted either a common Polish name or a name created after the month of their baptism (that's why many Frankists adopted the name Majewski - after the month of May in 1759).
