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Re: Sorry, I was talkung about DAHL, not TAHL
I have to say, it seems extremely rare for a European Jewish family to have a Hebrew surname. Aside from Cohen, I can't think of any. Surnames in the European tradition were given by one's neighbours and acquaintances, and although a few words crossed into the vernacular, Hebrew was largely a liturgical language in both Europe and Palestine, and so surnames of European Jews are usually coined from the local language - German, French, Slovakian, Ukrainian etc. — Rothschild, Dreyfus, Goldstein, Hamarnick. There are of course patronymics based on Hebrew first names, but these may also be used by non-Jews, after all Hebrew names are popular among Christian communities as well. The majority of "Hebrew" surnames like Tal are relatively recent, having their origin in the Zionist movement of the 20th Century and the revival of the Hebrew language as a modern vernacular. It's far more likely that a Hebrew name Tal has a "hidden" past as the Swiss-German surname Tahl.
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