# Jewish surnames

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-surnames/355203>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 3, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-surnames/355203 "2006-05-03T04:57:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-surnames/355203/21 "2006-05-03T18:40:29Z")

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Then how do you explain Rosenbaum (Rose-Tree)?

They were just required to take a last name, and many who were able to chose fanciful names for themselves. Stein does mean “stone”, but the people who chose it were chosing it in the context of a gemstone. So, Goldstein, Rosenstein, Finkelstein, Feinstein, Silverstein, etc.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-surnames/355203/22 "2006-05-03T19:02:20Z")

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I met this beautiful girl who was telling me about all of her problems. Turns out she was a nymphomaniac who had a thing for Jewish cowboys. I said, “How do you do? I’m Bucky Goldstein.”

[/Steven Wright]

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**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-surnames/355203/23 "2006-05-03T19:23:26Z")

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Having had some academic experience in Hebrew, I can say that I am almost positive that most surnames that are associated with being Jewish have nothing to do with Hebrew. Many sounds in English really don’t even have a Hebrew equivalent anyway, at least not classically.

On that note, there are actually a number of first names of classical Hebrew origin. A lot of people might characterize them simply as Bible names, but a lot of them have become so mainstream a lot of people might not know their origin, or if not the origin, that there is a Hebrew equivalent. For example: Rebecca, Rachel, Michael, Elizabeth, Isaac, Adam, David, Daniel, Esther… there’s others I’m not remembering right now.

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