Most Common Surname Among Torah Observant Jews

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  • January 19, 2009 7:55 pm at 7:55 pm #589164
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    Anyone have any concrete information as to what the most common surname is among Torah observant (better than the words frum or orthodox :)) Jews?

    I had my guess but then realized it takes only Ashkenazim into account and I have a feeling that it is correct only for the USA where Ashkenazim are the numerical majority (despite the B”H very strong return to Torah among US Sefardim in the past generation).

    For the entire world and all communities, would it be Cohen? That is the most common Jewish surname in general.

    January 19, 2009 8:33 pm at 8:33 pm #828905
    azi
    Participant

    I know a lot of frum Smiths.

    January 19, 2009 9:27 pm at 9:27 pm #828906
    havesomeseichel
    Member

    White, Black, Big and Small were the main ones in Europe. Oh, you never heard people being called that? I am sure you have: Weiss, Shwartz, Gross and Klein. Those 4 are in the top 10.

    January 19, 2009 10:11 pm at 10:11 pm #828907
    areivimzehlazeh
    Participant

    havesomeseichel- good one :):)

    January 19, 2009 10:22 pm at 10:22 pm #828908
    xerox
    Member

    The top two i’ve heard of are; Cohen and Smith..

    January 19, 2009 10:35 pm at 10:35 pm #828909
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    Azi – yes – the Smiths were Schmidts or (- gold, fein etc) schmidts in Europe (or for that matter any other name because Ellis Island was said to have made some errors in transcribing names but now that has apparently been disproven – not sure). Wonder if any Jewish or Notzri Haddads from the Arabic speaking world changed their name to Smith to avoid being mistaken for Muslims :).

    Havesome – yes – and Feher, Fekete (very common in Satmar/Pupa), Nagy (never met a Jew named Nagy but I assume there are some out there) and Kiss (a few such as musician Mo Kiss).

    January 19, 2009 10:55 pm at 10:55 pm #828910
    anonymisss
    Participant

    Friedman, Berger, Stein

    ~a~

    January 19, 2009 11:00 pm at 11:00 pm #828911
    oomis
    Participant

    Goldberg? (not my surname, btw)

    January 19, 2009 11:37 pm at 11:37 pm #828912
    yros
    Member

    friedman by far. Infact, i used to go to camp agudah. out of the approx. 600 campers, there were 27 friedmans!!!!

    January 19, 2009 11:44 pm at 11:44 pm #828913
    jphone
    Member

    Shlit”a

    January 19, 2009 11:49 pm at 11:49 pm #828914
    yros
    Member

    shlita? shiichos

    January 19, 2009 11:58 pm at 11:58 pm #828915
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    I happen to agree with one of those names as far as the US is concerned – but add on all of the Torah faithful of Middle Eastern, North African and Arabian origin in EY, France, Argentina and Brazil and it may change the statistics. Only Cohen (and to a lesser extent Levi and perhaps Sofer and just maybe Shochet) seem to be common to Jews of all origins.

    January 20, 2009 12:16 am at 12:16 am #828916
    squeak
    Participant

    LOL jphone! I nominate you for potential post of the year! Second?

    By the same token, the most common first name is HRH”G (for those that didn’t get what jphone said, ahem, ahem).

    January 20, 2009 12:28 am at 12:28 am #828917
    Joseph
    Participant

    Katenelenbogen

    January 20, 2009 12:50 am at 12:50 am #828918
    jphone
    Member

    Humor.

    January 20, 2009 1:26 am at 1:26 am #828919
    asdfghjkl
    Participant

    a pushuta yid, vus machst a yid??? then there’s schwartz, fogel, cohen, klein,…vichooli vechooli…

    January 20, 2009 3:29 am at 3:29 am #828920
    moish01
    Member

    isn’t it “katzenenlbogen?” that’s the name of the street in har nof isn’t it?

    January 20, 2009 4:10 am at 4:10 am #828921
    asdfghjkl
    Participant

    moish01: yes there is a street in israel by that name!!!

    January 20, 2009 4:19 am at 4:19 am #828922
    Joseph
    Participant

    typo, but yes.

    January 20, 2009 4:20 am at 4:20 am #828923
    Joseph
    Participant

    I recall that a large portion of Eurpean Jewry shtam (descend) from Katzenelenbogen.

    January 20, 2009 4:48 am at 4:48 am #828924
    moish01
    Member

    ha! i got a typo too.

    “katzenelbogen”

    January 20, 2009 4:58 am at 4:58 am #828925
    Curious
    Member

    moish – you first version was impossible to pronounce.

    asdf – how do you know har nof area?

    January 20, 2009 5:00 am at 5:00 am #828926
    asdfghjkl
    Participant

    Curious: i’ve been to israel too many times in my life!!!!

    January 20, 2009 5:04 am at 5:04 am #828927
    RoshYeshivah
    Member

    Squeak: just to add RASKABHAG is becoming dangerously over used!!!

    January 20, 2009 5:06 am at 5:06 am #828928
    Joseph
    Participant

    There is no such thing as “too many times”.

    January 20, 2009 5:09 am at 5:09 am #828929
    asdfghjkl
    Participant

    Joseph: so true!!!

    January 20, 2009 5:42 am at 5:42 am #828930
    RoshYeshivah
    Member

    joseph: it depends what you do in israel for some ppl even the first time was too much.

    January 20, 2009 7:08 am at 7:08 am #828931
    amichai
    Participant

    asdf- never say to be in e’y is too much.

    January 20, 2009 10:57 am at 10:57 am #828932
    Mrs. Beautiful
    Member

    I vote Friedman.

    January 20, 2009 12:18 pm at 12:18 pm #828933
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    Yes, the most common first name in Bnei Brak (Lakewood, BP, Williamsburgh, Monsey, Monroe) is probably HRH”G and the most common surname is therefore indeed shlit”a!

    January 20, 2009 3:09 pm at 3:09 pm #828934
    areivimzehlazeh
    Participant

    RY- i respectfully disagree. Even if someone is doing all the wrong things there, it’s better they did it in E”Y where the kidusha may eventually seep in rather than doing it elsewhere

    as for names, I’m curious what the most popular FIRST name is. Moshe?

    January 20, 2009 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm #828935
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    Yes, my guess is Friedman as well for the US.

    Relatively few of the Katzenellenbogen descendants carry the surname today.

    January 20, 2009 6:05 pm at 6:05 pm #828937
    moish01
    Member

    that’s me! actually dovid is probably more common. or yosef.

    January 20, 2009 6:16 pm at 6:16 pm #828938
    moish01
    Member

    most common combo is for sure david cohen.

    January 20, 2009 7:01 pm at 7:01 pm #828940
    syriansephardi
    Member

    Cohen for sure number one! But the ashkenazim pronounce it like Kohn right?? We pronounce it Ko-In….

    Only block I know in har nof- hakablan!!

    January 20, 2009 7:08 pm at 7:08 pm #828941
    moish01
    Member

    not everyone. depends how the guy pronounces it himself.

    January 20, 2009 7:26 pm at 7:26 pm #828942
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    Do you include Katz in the Cohen category (Katz = Kohen Tzedek)?

    January 20, 2009 7:44 pm at 7:44 pm #828943
    moish01
    Member

    even if it’s not included both names are pretty popular on their own

    January 20, 2009 7:45 pm at 7:45 pm #828944
    syriansephardi
    Member

    Moish: everyone of my teachers (who are ashkenaz ponounces it Kohn)

    January 20, 2009 8:20 pm at 8:20 pm #828945
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    Most common first names – I’d guess Yosef, Moshe, David – male and Rivka, Esther, Sara – female (not sure in what order).

    SJS – no – I mean only the actual surname Cohen as Katz is not found outside the Ashkenazi communities. There is actually a Persian surname Cohen Tzedek (Tzedek may be Persianised to Sadegh in some cases) written out in full.

    January 20, 2009 8:35 pm at 8:35 pm #828946
    squeak
    Participant

    Don’t you hate when the page that loads has no posts on it and no navigation buttons?

    January 20, 2009 9:00 pm at 9:00 pm #828947
    Itzik_s
    Member

    BS”D

    In E”Y every letter is pronounced and it is kohen as if you are speaking of the kohen gadol when learning. I’m multilingual and hang out with a lot of people who speak Ivrit and French so I pronounce it as Ko-in as well – for me “Cone” would be the way I’d pronounce the “yekke” Kohn spelling of the name.

    Here in the Russian speaking world the name is Kogan because there is no H in Russian – but in Moscow it is Kogan with a G and here in Ukraine it sounds like it would be written Kojan in Spanish, with a soft Sefardi het in place of the G. (Kilogram here is also kilojram with that sound – it is the standard Ukrainian mispronunciation of the Cyrillic letter with the G sound).

    January 20, 2009 10:27 pm at 10:27 pm #828948
    moish01
    Member

    yeah squeak i was actually wondering if it only happened on my computer. guess not.

    January 21, 2009 3:07 am at 3:07 am #828949
    RoshYeshivah
    Member

    areivim: it says that a sin in israel is seven times worse that one in chu”l!

    January 21, 2009 5:06 am at 5:06 am #828950
    beacon
    Participant

    Talk about coincidences…Go to the home page of onlysimchas someone katzenelenbogen got engaged.. I find that really cute

    January 21, 2009 5:28 am at 5:28 am #828951
    moish01
    Member

    how is it spelled?!

    January 21, 2009 5:34 am at 5:34 am #828952
    beacon
    Participant

    exactly how I spelled it.

    January 21, 2009 6:11 am at 6:11 am #828954
    asdfghjkl
    Participant

    beacon: real funny!!!

    January 21, 2009 11:21 am at 11:21 am #828955
    intellegent
    Member

    areivimzehlazeh,

    Do you have a basis for that? I think it is much worse to do bad in E”Y because it is compared to someone doing somehting in the palace of the King! (I read an article that E”Y can have an amazing effect on someone moving in the right direction but if he is on a downward slide to begin with then it would have the opposite effect.)

    as far as names, I think Rivky Friedman is the most common combination for girls! For some reason Faigy Friedman seems to be quite common too even though Faigy is not as common a name.

    I think Esty and Rivky are most common girl names and Moishy the most common for boys.

    January 21, 2009 4:17 pm at 4:17 pm #828956
    eman
    Participant

    An Italian co-worker of mine once told me the following. He worked as a collection agent for receivables in the garment industry. All he had to do was call up, ask for Mr. Cohen, Mr. Schwartz or Mr Klein and he had his person

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