Russian-Jewish Given Names: Their Origins and Variants
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Section I
Origins of Russian-Jewish Given Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Jewish Names Throughout History: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Tanakh as Prime Source of Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Classification of Biblical Names by Pogorel'skij . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Babylonian Exile: First Use of Foreign Names (586-537
B.C.E.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Name Development During the Hellenistic Period (323-330
B.C.E.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Roman Rule (Second Century B.C.E.-Seventh Century C.E.). . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Name Development in the First Ten Centuries of the Common
Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Jewish Life and Name Development During the Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Post-Spanish Expulsion Period (Sixteenth-Eighteenth
Centuries). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Partitions of Poland and Subjugation of the
Jews by Russia (1772-1795). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Nineteenth-Century Russian Legislation Regarding Jewish Given
Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Formation of Russian-Jewish Patronymics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Section II
Jewish Names Used in Russia, Including Their Known Derivations,
Abbreviations and Distortions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Structure of Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Transliteration Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Feminine Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Masculine Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Section III
List of Secular Names and Their Root Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Feminine Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Masculine Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
Sources Cited by Kulisher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
Archival Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
List of Tables
1. Some Greek Names Used by the Jews of Antiquity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2. Arabic Names Used by Jews in the Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. German Names Used by Jews in the Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4. Other European Names Used by Jews in the Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5. European Names Adopted by Jews (1492-1781). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6. Jewish Names Changed to Adapt to Local Tongues
and Customs (Fifteenth-Eighteenth Centuries). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7. Jewish Names from the Ten Polish Provinces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. Jewish Names Typical of the Southwestern Russian Empire
(Volhyn and Podolia Provinces). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
9. Jewish Names Typical in Lithuania and the Northwestern
Russian Empire (Vilna, Kovno, Grodno and Minsk provinces) . . . . . . . . . . 37
10. Jewish Names from the Baltic Provinces (Estland, Courland,
Lyfland). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
11. Non-Jewish Names Adopted by Jews Throughout History . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
12. Non-Jewish Names Adopted by Jews No Longer Used by
Christians at the Turn of the Twentieth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
13. Names No Longer Used by Jews by the Early Twentieth
Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
14. Patronymics That Were Exceptions to Russian Rules of Grammar .. . . . . . . . 49
15. Cyrillic to the Roman Alphabet Translation Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54