regional names

[Victor Steinbok]

No real need to puzzle over such things. Although not universally true
of such names, it used to be quite common for Jewish families to acquire
names associated with places of origin--some by choice, some because
name construction used to follow patterns similar to Arabic, some
because the names were given as a part of the conversion process (no
difference whether it was by choice or by force). This is, in part,
responsible for Slavic names that I mentioned earlier, such as Moskvin,
Mosvich, Moskvitin, Moskovitch, Ryazansky, Rjewski, Tobolski, Smolensky,
Litvak, Varshavsky, etc.--which are often recognized by Russian and
Polish speakers as odd formations for supposedly Slavic names (in
contrast, for example, with Podolski, Polonski and Dombrowski--not quite
sure why). The same is true of many non-Slavic names as well--Deutsch
and French are common Jewish family names in the US, although not
exclusively Jewish AFAIK--but also, Berlin, Berliner, Wiener, Vinner,
Frank, Frankfurter, Hamburger. Some may be many generations
post-conversion and no longer recognize coming from Jewish families,
others may come from other sources, e.g., Italiano and Deutsch may be
obvious Ellis Island creations (where French would have been less likely
to have been misinterpreted, hence lack of Francais) or people from
families who migrated within Europe. And names from Ladino-speaking
territories may look very different and not recognizable in the same way.

     VS-)

On 3/21/2010 11:14 AM, George Thompson wrote:
> I have long been puzzled by names like "Italiano" and "Deutsch" -- what would lead to someone being called "the Italian" in an Italian speaking community (or, "the German" . . . )?
> I suppose the name "English" could have been acquired by an Englishman living in Scotland.   I don't think I've encountered the name "Francais".
> Once upon a time, the peninsula of Italy was a multitude of princedoms and republics -- was one region considered the real "Italy" -- or should I be thinking of Trieste or the Italian-speaking communities in the Austrian Alps?  As for Deutsch, I suppose that that is a name that might have been assigned in Austria, or in German-speaking Switzerland?
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
>
>

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