German jewish surnames

[Kalitas]

I always asked myself why the german jewish surnames are so different from ethnic german surnames?:mmmm:
What I mean is that certain words like Stein (stone), Berg (mountain), Spiel (play/game), Gold, Silber, Baum (tree), Wein (wine), Blume (flower), Rot (red), etc. are only found among jewish surnames and never used in ethnic german surnames.
Something else that catches my attention is that they never use double consonants in their surnames, breaking with that the german spelling. For example, typical ethnic german surnames like Grossmann and Lehrnann are written Grosman and Lehman in their jewish forms.
Does anyone know why the jewish surnames are written so different from the ethnic german surnames?

[Pallantides]

-berg is a very common Swedish surname, also in Norway but not as common as in Sweden. It's totally unrelated to Jews though and their use of German surnames. But I still get a kick out of American neo-nutzis thinking Iggy Pop(Irish, German, Norwegian and Danish ancestry) is Jewish because he was adopted by a Swedish American family with the surname Österberg.

[Kalitas]

-berg is a very common Swedish surname, also in Norway but not as common as in Sweden.

Yes, Burg and Berg can be found in both Jewish and Germanic ethnic surnames

[PetiteParisienne]

I have a Jewish friend whose surname is Grossman. Klein is also used by both Gentile and Jewish Germans.

[noricum]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_surname

Many "Jewish surnames" also occur amog Germans.
Baumgartner, Wassermann, Gross (Grohs), Brunner, Stein, Bär, Wolf, Weiss (Weiß), Schwarz, Kaufmann, Jäger, etc

[Kalitas]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_surname

Many "Jewish surnames" also occur amog Germans.
Baumgartner, Wassermann, Gross (Grohs), Brunner, Stein, Bär, Wolf, Weiss (Weiß), Schwarz, Kaufmann, Jäger, etc

So, they were forced to adopt german surnames, but I still don´t get it why they differ so much from the ethnic german surnames? (Like ending in man instead of mann )

[Odoacer]

So, they were forced to adopt german surnames, but I still don´t get it why they differ so much from the ethnic german surnames? (Like ending in man instead of mann )

"Man" vs. "mann" is a common variant, often a change that occurred after emigrating elsewhere. In the U.S., for example, nearly all German surnames with "mann" were changed to "man." In my family, the surnames "Dieckmann" & "Begemann" became "Dickman" & "Begeman" respectively.

Something else: http://www.jewfaq.org/jnames.htm


One reason for the frequency of German names among Jews is a 1787 Austro-Hungarian law. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controlled a substantial part of Europe at the time, was the first country in Europe that required Jews to register a permanent family surname, and they required that this surname be German. A copy of the decree (http://www.shoreshim.org/en/infoEmperorJoseph.asp) can be found on the Polish-Jewish genealogy website, Shoreshim. This explains the frequency of German surnames in Western Europe, but it doesn't explain the frequency of German surnames for Jews in the Russian Empire, where German surnames for Jews are also common. The frequency of German family names among Russia may be due to migration from Western Europe.