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Archivesorigen and meaning of Febus
It was the last name of my maternal grandfather. I know his parents came to the us from the Netherlands but It seems to be have a Spanish or possibly Sephardic origen. Any help would be appreciated
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It's probably a Spanish or other Romance language spelling of the Greek Phoebus, in which case it would be a surname from the name of a male ancestor. Phoebus means "bright" or "pure", and may have been used to translate some Heprew name. The combination Uri Phoebus occurs, and Hebrew Uri means "my light".
There is also a Yiddish version of this name, Faivish, among Ashkenazic Jews.
There is also a Yiddish version of this name, Faivish, among Ashkenazic Jews.
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I have also seen Febos listed as a surname on Sephardim.com
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Thanks. Is there any way you can explain the Dutch connection though?
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Amsterdam had a well known Sephardic community. The great philosopher Benedict, or Baruch, Spinoza was born there. His name would have been Espinosa in regular Spanish. I think this particular community was made up of Conversos, or "New Christians", who had been forcibly converted to Christianity but continued to practice the Jewish religion in secret. The Netherlands were once Spanish, but it may have been that attitudes to religious observation were more tolerant there. After all most of the native population were Protestant and so suspect in the eyes of their Spanish rulers. That may have made Amsterdam attractive to the Conversos.
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I keep forgetting to mention that, according to some writers, Phoebus was adopted by Jews as substitute for Samson. Phoebus was another name for Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, Samson (Hebrew Shimshon) incorporates the Hebrew word for "sun".
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