Avotaynu, the leading publisher of books on Jewish genealogy as well as, AVOTAYNU, the journal of Jewish genealogy is pleased to present the Consolidated Jewish Surname Index (CJSI). CJSI is your gateway to information about 699,084 surnames, mostly Jewish, that appear in 42 different databases. These databases combined contain more than 7.3 million records. Using CJSI means it is unnecessary to search each source separately to determine if there is information about a surname of interest. CJSI identifies which of these databases reference the surname. Links are provided to other web sites that either have the database or information about how to access the data. CJSI is sequenced phonetically rather than alphabetically using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex System. Therefore, spelling variants of a name that sound the same are grouped together.

Access to these 42 different databases varies. Some are immediately accessible on the Internet, some are published books, others are on microfiche. For those databases mentioned that are available on microfiche, each of the Jewish genealogical societies throughout the world have copies of the fiche and make them available to members at no cost. Because the databases in book form are valuable research tools, many societies have copies of these books, also. Also check with large local libraries who may have copies of the books in their reference section. Finally, almost all of the books and all microfiche are available for purchase through Avotaynu.

Books About Jewish Names Avotaynu has published a number of books about Jewish names. Additional information about them can be found on our catalog page.

To search the CJSI, key in the surname of interest below and click the "Search" button. The system will then soundex the name and lead you to that portion of the CJSI database that has your name as well as those names that sound like your surname. Next to each surname will be at least one code; each code representing a database in which the surname, as spelled, appears. A list of all databases immediately follows the listing of surnames. Clicking the database name will take you to a more detailed description of the database, or the database itself if present on the Web.

What is a Jewish Name?
Some people use CJSI to determine if a surname is Jewish. The fact that you find a surname in this index does not necessarily mean that a given surname is Jewish. This occurs for three major reasons:
1. Jews and non-Jews share surnames. The third most common Jewish surname in the United States (after Cohen and Levy) is Miller. Clearly Miller in both non-Jewish and Jewish.
2. Intermarriage and conversion. The fact that the surname McGraw appears in a Jewish burial database means someone named McGraw is buried in a Jewish cemetery. That does not make it a Jewish surname. Similarly, the Family Tree of the Jewish People is a database of family trees developed by Jewish genealogists. But it would also include non-Jewish branches of families.
3. Nature of database. Some of the databases named are predominantly Jewish but do contain non-Jewish individuals. An example is the Russian Consular Records database of people who transacted business with the czarist consulates in the United States.

Advanced Search Option
This option is meant only for people that are familiar with soundex searches. If you enclose characters of the name being searched in brackets it signifies that the letter should not be soundexed but must appear as is. For example, searching for the name Tartacki will provide all elements of the database that have the soundex 393450 including those names that start with the letter "D" which has the same soundex code as "T." However, if you request a search of [T]artacki, you have specified that the initial letter must be "T." Any number of consecutive letters may be bound in brackets. Any number of sets of characters can be bound in brackets. Users should be reminded that attempting to reduce the number of false positives may, in fact, eliminate true positives, so the feature should be used judiciously.