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Did many migrants to Israel adopt new Hebrew last names when they arrived? Genuinely curious if a familyname like "Nissan" would have been found among Jewish p

Did many migrants to Israel adopt new Hebrew last names when they arrived? Genuinely curious if a familyname like "Nissan" would have been found among Jewish populations prior to the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language?

ronilan 9y ago
Interesting question (tough it is completely irrelevant to the case). As far as I know it is an “old” name not a “refreshed” one. According to [1] it was adopted as a first name in the Middle Ages, specifying the time a boy was born, and then became a family name (via A son of B). [1] https://dbs.bh.org.il/he/ניסן-87656/שםמשפחה https://dbs.bh.org.il/he/ניסן-87656/שםמשפחה
cwzwarich 9y ago
Jews traditionally didn't have last names, but instead referred to as the son/daughter of their father, e.g. "Moshe ben David" or "Sarah bat David". In the past few hundred years, European Jews were generally forced to take fixed surnames. It's unlikely that Nissan was used as an actual surname at that point without any explicit patronymic. It's more likely that it was a father's first name, converted into a surname upon moving to Israel.
- walrus01 9y ago
  The vast majority of Afghans traditionally didn't have last names either. If you look at the Tazkira (Farsi/Dari language government identity document, it's an A4 sized single piece of paper that serves as combination birth certificate and primary government ID), it has the person's name, name of father, name of grandfather on it. Legally people are known as something like Showaib, son of Ahmed. A lot of Afghans who have emigrated to foreign countries have created their own last names from something related to their family, geographical area/tribal affiliation, etc. There are also people who have not done this and their name printed on their passport is a double of their first name, so you have people named "Jawad Jawad".

ronilan 9y ago

Interesting question (tough it is completely irrelevant to the case). As far as I know it is an “old” name not a “refreshed” one. According to [1] it was adopted as a first name in the Middle Ages, specifying the time a boy was born, and then became a family name (via A son of B). [1] https://dbs.bh.org.il/he/ניסן-87656/שםמשפחה https://dbs.bh.org.il/he/ניסן-87656/שםמשפחה

cwzwarich 9y ago

Jews traditionally didn't have last names, but instead referred to as the son/daughter of their father, e.g. "Moshe ben David" or "Sarah bat David". In the past few hundred years, European Jews were generally forced to take fixed surnames. It's unlikely that Nissan was used as an actual surname at that point without any explicit patronymic. It's more likely that it was a father's first name, converted into a surname upon moving to Israel.

walrus01 9y ago
The vast majority of Afghans traditionally didn't have last names either. If you look at the Tazkira (Farsi/Dari language government identity document, it's an A4 sized single piece of paper that serves as combination birth certificate and primary government ID), it has the person's name, name of father, name of grandfather on it. Legally people are known as something like Showaib, son of Ahmed. A lot of Afghans who have emigrated to foreign countries have created their own last names from something related to their family, geographical area/tribal affiliation, etc. There are also people who have not done this and their name printed on their passport is a double of their first name, so you have people named "Jawad Jawad".