How to Spot Jewish Surnames

[Witta]

While this list may never be complete, it will cover most of the jewish names one is likely to encounter in everyday Western life. Unlike many gentile names, there is such a thing as a 'Jewish name.' Many Jewish persons can be recognized as being Jewish by their surname [last name], although not always--some Jews are adopted, or their forebears changed the family surname, or their surname simply does not appear Jewish.

Here are the most common Jewish names likely to be encountered in the west:

-Names ending in "-berg" (Goldberg, Weinberg, etc.)

-Names ending in "-man" (Goldman, Lightman, etc.)

-Names ending in "-stein" (Einstein, Perlstein, etc.)

-Names that sound "precious" (Gold, Silver, Diamond, Ruby (Rubenstein) etc.)

-Names ending in "-ler" (Adler, Midler, etc.)

-Names ending in "-ner" (Asner, Lardner, etc.)

-Names ending in "-lin" (Gitlin, Sheindlin, etc.)

-Names ending in "-band" (Miliband, Goldband, etc.)

-Names ending in "-witz" (Horowitz, Rabinowitz, etc.) or "- itz" (Kravitz, etc.)

-Names ending in "-baum" (Teitelbaum, Metzenbaum, etc.)

-Names ending in "-off" (Chartoff, Berkhoff, etc.)

-Names ending in "-nik" (Resnik, Mitnik, etc.)

-Names ending in "-thal" (Blumenthal, Rosenthal, etc.)

-Names ending in "-ling" (Spelling, Sperling, etc.)

-Names ending in "-sky" (Barshefsky, Linsky, etc.)

-Names ending in "-farb" (Himmelfarb, Goldfarb, etc.)

-Names ending in "-feld" (Seinfeld, Rosenfeld, etc.)

-Names ending in "-stone" (Wellstone, Firestone, etc.)

-Some, but certainly not all, names ending in "-son" (Abelson, Josephson, etc.)

-Surnames that sound "Biblical," e.g., David, Joseph, Abram or Abraham, Moses, Benjamin, Isaac, etc.

Some other names commonly used or adopted by jewish immigrants:

-Miller -Davis -Ross -Lewis -Roth -Morris -Davidson -Green -Wolf -Newman -Gross -Harris -Sherman -Myers -Mayer -Jacobs -Aaron -Michael -Hirsch -Raphael -Tobias -Levy -Brand -Cohen -Kaplan -Weiss -Nathan -Leo -Levine -Simon -Levin -Samuel -Falk -Wise -Gottfried -Gottlieb -Mann -Mathis -May -Mars -Marx -Marks -Saul -Gould -Fink -Loeb -Loew -Rubin -Stern -Shapiro -Klein -Cohn -Singer -Frank -Schwartz -Rich -Kahn -Kramer

[Méldmir]

Many of these names are infact Germanic and Slavic names, and are common among Germanics and Slavics in Europe. In the USA however, it seems that Jews have kept their German or Slavic names more than non-Jews have. It seems though that in recent years Jews have anglizied their names in the USA like non-Jews did before.

[Loyalist]

The list is accurate, but we must be careful not to immediately categorise an individual as a Jew simply because their surname looks Jewish. I know plenty of Gentiles who possess the suffix -berg/-burg, -man/-mann, -stein, and many others listed in the chart you presented. Jumping to conclusions is neither fair to the victim, nor beneficial to our cause.

[Æmeric]

I've known a few Isaacsons who were Swedish not Jewish. Donald Rumsfeld was not Jewish. And the Roosevelts (Rosenvelds) are not Jewish. I've heard that Poles use ski while Jews use sky. I don't think Newman is necessarily a Jewish surname. Isn't Mayer & Myers just a variation of Meyer which is one of the most common German surnames?

Overall though I think the list is pretty indicated of Jewish surnames (in America), except the list at the bottom includes many names that born by more gentiles then Jews, e.g. Davis, Lewis, Harris, Miller, etc....

[Old Winter]

Rich, how typical jewish.

[Wulfram]

Many European based jews, attempting to assimilate, take the names of cities or towns from which they came from.
Here are a few examples:

Berliner
Rothenberg
Bamberger
Greenberg (Hesse)
Hamburger
Breslau
Friedberg
Bacharach
Cassel
Warburg
Munsterburg
Hildesheimer
Dessauer
Mannheim
Hamelin
Frankfurter
Ulmer
Braunschweiger
Wien

I would imagine that almost all German towns have at least one jew in the past or present who adopted their name.
Study a map of Germany and Austria and you can learn to spot jews this way as well.

Also, many jews took the last names of famous Germans.
When I was younger I met one whose last name was 'Bach'.

[Méldmir]

The actual ending or suffix of the names usually mean nothing, they are just suffixes common in the area. Just look at the NSDAP cabinet, we can find the suffixes -berg, -ler, -mann, -ner etc.

[Jäger]

-Names ending in "-ler" (Adler, Midler, etc.)

"Müller" is the most common surname in Germany, for Germans.

Many European based jews, attempting to assimilate, take the names of cities or towns from which they came from.

This is void in a quest to identify jews, since the oldest German surnames originate either from profession or from the place of origin.

[Sissi]

If someone has a surname like Schwarz or Weiß/Weiss, then it could be both a German person or a Jewish person, however, surnames like Rot, Grün, Blau, etc., are an indication that it's very likely for the person to be Jewish.

[Zyklop]

The list is accurate

The list is BS. Most of the endings are common German pre- and suffixes.

Check out this list instead:
http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?p=780384&