You’ve probably heard a name like Goldberg or Silverstein and immediately thought, "Oh, that’s a Jewish name." It’s a natural reaction. But honestly, the history of most common Jewish last names is way more chaotic and interesting than just a list of German-sounding words.
Most people don't realize that for the vast majority of Jewish history, last names didn't even exist.
If you were a guy named Isaac living in a village in Poland in 1750, you weren't Isaac Rosenberg. You were just Yitzhak ben Avraham—Isaac, son of Abraham. That’s it. It was a patronymic system, where your identity was tied to your father. If you moved to a different town, people might call you "Isaac the Baker" or "Isaac from Vilna."
The shift to permanent, hereditary surnames didn't happen because of tradition. It happened because of taxes and the draft. Basically, European governments in the late 18th century got tired of not being able to track who owed them money or who was supposed to be in the army. They forced Jewish families to pick—or be assigned—permanent last names.
The "Big Two" That Actually Mean Something
If we’re talking about the absolute most common names, we have to start with the ones that aren't just random German words. These are the "VIP" names of the Jewish world.
Cohen (and its many, many cousins)
Cohen is the undisputed heavyweight champion of Jewish last names. In Israel, it’s the most common name by a long shot. In the U.S., it’s right up there at the top too.
The name comes from the Hebrew word Kohen, which means "priest." These are the descendants of the ancient priestly class that served in the Temple in Jerusalem. Because this status was hereditary and extremely important for religious rituals, families kept track of it long before the government forced them to.
But here’s the thing: Cohen doesn't always look like "Cohen." Depending on where your ancestors were living, it might have been tweaked to fit the local language.
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- Katz: This isn't about cats. It’s an acronym for Kohen Tzedek, meaning "Righteous Priest."
- Kaplan: The German/Slavic version of "chaplain" or "priest."
- Kogan or Kagan: Since the Russian language doesn't have a "H" sound, "Koh-en" became "Kog-an."
- Cohn, Kahn, Kohnstamm: All variations of the same root.
Levy (The Temple Assistants)
Right behind the Cohens are the Levys. These are the descendants of the Tribe of Levi, who were the assistants to the priests. Just like the Cohens, this status was a big deal, so the name stuck.
You’ll see this as Levin, Levine, Levitt, or even Lewin. In Sephardic communities (Jews from Spain, Portugal, and North Africa), you might see it as Halevi.
The Austro-Hungarian Shakedown
So, what about all those names like Goldman, Friedman, and Schwartz?
This is where things get a bit messy. In 1787, Emperor Joseph II of Austria passed a law called the Das Patent über die Judennamen. It mandated that all Jews in his empire adopt German last names.
Now, imagine you’re a government clerk in a small town. You have 500 people lined up outside your office who need names by the end of the day. You’re bored. You’re maybe a little bit mean. You start handing out names based on what you see or what the person can afford to pay you.
The "Luxury" Names
If a family had a bit of money, they could often bribe the official for a "pretty" name. This is why we have so many names based on nature and precious metals:
- Goldstein (Gold stone)
- Rosenberg (Rose mountain)
- Blumenthal (Flower valley)
- Diamond or Diamant
The "Basic" Names
If you were poor, you got whatever the clerk felt like giving you. Often, these were just physical descriptions or basic colors.
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- Schwartz (Black hair or complexion)
- Weiss (White/Pale)
- Gross (Tall or large)
- Klein (Small)
There’s a persistent myth that officials gave out "insulting" names like Eselkopf (Donkey head) to those who couldn't pay. While a few of these do exist in old records, they aren't nearly as common as the legend suggests. Most people just wanted to get through the day, clerks included.
Occupational Names: You Are What You Do
A huge chunk of the most common Jewish last names are just job titles in German, Yiddish, or Slavic languages.
Miller (or Mueller) is actually the third most common Jewish name in the United States. It's funny because it's such a "standard" name that many people don't realize it's often Jewish. It just means the person ran a grain mill.
Other common ones include:
- Schneider: Tailor. This is massive because tailoring was a trade Jews were legally allowed to practice in many parts of Europe.
- Goldschmidt: Goldsmith.
- Fischer: Fisherman.
- Schuster: Shoemaker.
- Cantor or Chazan: The person who leads the singing in the synagogue.
The Sephardic and Mizrahi Difference
If you walk down a street in Tel Aviv, the names you hear are totally different from what you'd hear in a deli in Brooklyn. This is because the Jewish world isn't just Eastern European (Ashkenazi).
Sephardic Jews (from the Iberian Peninsula) and Mizrahi Jews (from the Middle East and North Africa) have a completely different naming history. Many of them had hereditary surnames centuries before the Ashkenazi Jews did.
- Mizrahi: Simply means "Easterner." It's incredibly common in Israel today.
- Peretz: A very old Sephardic name.
- Biton: Another heavy hitter in the North African Jewish community.
- Toledano: Named after the city of Toledo in Spain.
- Sasson: Means "joy" in Hebrew.
The Great Hebraization (The "New" Names)
When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, there was a huge push for "negation of the Diaspora." Basically, the early Zionists wanted to shed their "exile" names—the ones given to them by German or Russian officials—and take on strong, Hebrew names.
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This is why you see so many Israeli families with names like Barak (Lightning), Eshkol (Grape cluster), or Ben-Gurion (Son of a young lion). Often, they would pick a Hebrew name that sounded similar to their old one. Levin became Lavie. Meyerson became Meir.
Why Your "Jewish" Last Name Might Not Be Jewish
Here is a reality check: there are almost no last names (besides Cohen and Levy) that are exclusively Jewish.
If you meet a guy named Miller, he could be Jewish, or he could be a Lutheran from Bavaria. If you meet a Schwartz, he might be a Jewish guy from Long Island, or he could be a Catholic from Vienna.
Because Jews were forced to take the names of the countries they lived in, they ended up sharing those names with their non-Jewish neighbors. The names only sound Jewish to us today because many of the German and Polish families who originally held them didn't migrate to the U.S. in the same massive waves that Jewish families did during the late 19th century.
Actionable Insights for Your Own Research
If you’re looking into your own family history or just curious about a name you encountered, don't just look at the word itself. Look at the geography.
- Check the Suffix: Suffixes like -witz, -shvili, or -poulos tell you more about where the family lived (Poland, Georgia, or Greece) than about their religion.
- Look for Acronyms: If a name feels "weird" or doesn't translate well (like Katz, Shach, or Sachs), there is a high chance it’s a Hebrew acronym for a religious title or a father's name.
- Don't assume "Americanized" means "Fake": Many immigrants at Ellis Island didn't have their names "changed" by officials (that's mostly a myth). Usually, the immigrants themselves changed their names to sound more "American" to avoid antisemitism or simply to fit in. Goldberg became Gold, or Abrahamson became Abrams.
Understanding these names isn't just about genealogy; it's about seeing the map of a people who were moved, forced to change, and yet somehow managed to keep their core identity intact through something as simple as a signature.
Start by looking up the specific town your ancestors came from. Many towns had specific "naming patterns" based on who the local government clerk was in the 1790s. You might find that everyone from one specific village in Ukraine ended up with names of birds, while the next village over all got names of trees.