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ArchivesRe: Looking for ethnicity
in reply to a message by Werner
Werner
German: from a personal name composed of the Germanic elements war(in) ‘guard’ + heri, hari ‘army’.
On the question of whether it's Jewish or not, it's a little bit nebulous. Most Jews of German extraction have German-based last names that may be no different than other non-Jewish German names.
The taking of surnames occurred around the same era for both and while Yiddish, which is a Germanic language, was often the spoken language of the Jewish communities, many Jews of course communicated in German as well.
As a result, many names that are associated almost exclusively with Jews still have their roots in German, i.e. Goldberg, Rubenstein, Birnbaum … so it can be difficult to tell.
I'd also add, that probably for some families, it was easier to take a more common German sounding name to help avoid prejudices.
German: from a personal name composed of the Germanic elements war(in) ‘guard’ + heri, hari ‘army’.
On the question of whether it's Jewish or not, it's a little bit nebulous. Most Jews of German extraction have German-based last names that may be no different than other non-Jewish German names.
The taking of surnames occurred around the same era for both and while Yiddish, which is a Germanic language, was often the spoken language of the Jewish communities, many Jews of course communicated in German as well.
As a result, many names that are associated almost exclusively with Jews still have their roots in German, i.e. Goldberg, Rubenstein, Birnbaum … so it can be difficult to tell.
I'd also add, that probably for some families, it was easier to take a more common German sounding name to help avoid prejudices.
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Thank you again! Very thorough answer for me!!!
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