"Flea buster" is free

Dror children group of Kibbutz Ein-Hahoresh in the forties (photo: Ein-Hahoresh Arcive). Some half of the children bear Biblical names such as Samuel (SHMUEL) and Judith (YEHUDIT) while the rest bear new Israeli names such as Amira



Who hasn't wondered at some time what the origin of his name is? Who did not happen to wonder about a strange name of another person? The Hebrew book The Origin of Names (MOZA HASHEMOT), by the deceased Avraham Stahl, presents a compilation of historical facts related to the development of Jewish first and last names, seasoned by amusing anecdotes related to the relations between humans and their names.

It turns out that not many years ago most people shared a very small variety of names. Roman men, for example, shared less than a hundred names - among them Gaius, Titus and Marcus. Even an analysis of the Israel telephone directory from 1971-1979, shows that 15 percent of the Jewish men were named after Jacob and his sons: Joseph, Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Dan, Gad, Benjamin etc. The use of a few first names in traditional societies, Stahl explains, reflects the community dominance versus the individual, so there is no interest in emphasizing people's uniqueness.

In 1992 Stahl made a comparison between the names of children in the secular Jerusalem residential district Gilo and the names of the children in the religious community Beit-El. He found that half of the secular boys, but only one religious boy, had new Hebrew names, that is - names that were created from the late 19th century to the present, and the rest of the names were from the Jewish scriptures, mostly from the Bible.

In his book Stahl explains that many of the family names held by Israelis of Ashkenazi descent are related to a law published in 1787 by Emperor Joseph II, ordering all Jews to carry a permanent family name in German. One could have chosen the name from a special list of names, unless his family had already have a name, and in that occasion a payment for the new name should have payed. The most expensive names were those derived from names of flowers or precious metals, such as Rosenthal (rose valley) or Goldstein (gold stone). Names of less privileged materials were sold cheaply: Holz (wood), Stein (stone) or Stahl (steel) - as the author's family name.

And one who could not meet even the low rate, received from the emperor's officials a name for free - a ridiculous and sneered name, such as Ochsenschwanz (ox tail) or Wanzenknacker (flea buster).