I heard it from my History teacher [1]. Where did he hear from, no idea. But someone seems to think it's not so outrageous: https://bloodandfrogs.com/2011/05/a

I heard it from my History teacher [1]. Where did he hear from, no idea. But someone seems to think it's not so outrageous: https://bloodandfrogs.com/2011/05/animals-and-name-pairs-in-jewish-given.html https://bloodandfrogs.com/2011/05/animals-and-name-pairs-in-... Edit: I forgot to say that true jew names would have been impossible to keep. They had to change names when they converted, choosing sometimes an "old christian" name to blend in, or maybe something with some cultural meaning for them. There are lists with names compiled from Santo Oficio trial records, that include those names indeed, but also other very common, just for the reasons I mentioned. I still believe the animal hint is true because most of these names are unusual. [1] His name is Aguilar, but he's a communist with very little sympathy for anything Israel, so I doubt he was trying to spread "jewish propaganda" like other commenter said.