How to Recognize Jewish Names

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 by Whites:

-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, 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 "-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 common Jewish names:

-Miller
-Davis
-Ross
-Lewis
-Roth
-Morris
-Davidson
-Green
-Wolf
-Newman
-Gross
-Harris
-Sherman
-Myers
-Mayer
-Jacobs
-Aaron
-Michael
-Hirsch
-Raphael
-Tobias
-Levy
-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

Home