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.
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]
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.