Acronyms As Surnames

 

In America, acronyms are a ubiquitous part of our daily lives. From the FBI, CIA, DUI, and DBA to the abbreviation of our very own country as the USA, acronyms simplify long phrases, embedding themselves seamlessly into our vocabulary. Yet, how often do we stop to consider the origins or meanings of these shorthand forms?

Just as acronyms serve modern convenience, they also hold a unique place in Jewish history and culture, where many family names actually derive from meaningful acronyms. These surnames serve as more than mere identifiers. They encapsulate family legacies, religious dedication, and historical circumstances. Just as acronyms like USA or FBI simplify communication, these Jewish surnames condense profound meanings into a few memorable letters, connecting generations to their heritage and values. In this article, we explore a few notable examples.

The surname Babad is an acronym for Ben Av Beis Din (“Son of the Head of the Rabbinical Court”). The Babad family traces its lineage back to Rabbi Heschel of Krakow (1596–1663), who – as you may have guessed – served as the head of the rabbinical court and yeshiva in Krakow. His pilpulistic teachings on Chumash were later compiled in the work Chanukas HaTorah. Famous members of this family include Rabbi Yosef Babad (1801–1874), author of the renowned Minchas Chinuch and his great-nephew Rabbi David Menachem Babad (1865–1937), author of the responsa Chavatzeles HaSharon.

Likewise, Rabbi Moshe Shick (1807–1879), an important Hungarian rabbi who studied under the Chasam Sofer, preserved a family tradition that their surname, Shick, is an acronym for Shem Yisrael Kodesh (“A Jewish Name Is Holy”). This name was adopted when governmental edicts required Jews to assume family surnames, which they had generally resisted. The family’s choice of name reflects their dedication to maintaining a distinctly Jewish identity.

The surname Charlap is said to be an acronym for Chiyya Rosh L’Golei Portugal/Poland (“Chiyya, Head of the Exiles of Portugal/Poland”). This refers to the family’s descent from Chiyya, a son of Hezkiyah ben David, who fled from Babylon to Spain and became a leader of the Jewish community there during the early 1000s (in the late Geonic period). After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, some descendants of Chiyya’s family settled in the Polish town of Tiktin (Tykocin), where they adopted the surname Charlap. Today, prominent members of the Charlap family live in Israel and the U.S..

Other acronymic surnames include: Zak (Zera Kodesh, “Holy Seed”), Zackheim (Zera Kedoshim Heimah, “They Are the Holy Seed”), Shub (Shochet U’Bodek, “Ritual Slaughterer and Examiner”), Briel (Ben Rav Yehuda Leib), Beck (Bnei Kedoshim), and Mass (Mocher Seforim, “Bookseller”; think also of the publishing house called Reuven Mass Publications). Additionally, the surname Segal is often interpreted as Segan Leviyah (“Deputy to the Levites”) or Segan L’Kohen (“Deputy to the Priests”).

Speaking of kohanim, there are some surnames which are specifically associated with them. The most famous of those is the last name Katz, which is an abbreviation for Kohen Tzedek (“righteous priest,” see Tehillim 132:9). Another famous surname associated with kohanim is Maza, which is said to stand for M’Zera Aharon HaKohen (“From the Seed of Aaron the Priest”). Famous descendants of that family include Rabbi Yaakov Maza (1859–1924), the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, as well as the renowned comedian Jackie Mason (1928–2021), who was born Yaakov Moshe Maza.

Perhaps surprisingly, not all families named Katz are kohanim. While Katz often signifies a kohen lineage, like we said above, it is also used as a shortened form of Katzenellenbogen. The Katzenellenbogen family descends from Rabbi Meir ben Yitzchak Katzenellenbogen, better known as the Maharam of Padua (1482–1565). The surname originates from the former county of Katzenelnbogen, a state within the Holy Roman Empire between 1095 and 1479, which was located in the Rhineland region of Germany. The place name “Katzenelnbogen” literally translates to “cat’s elbow” in German. However, some scholars suggest that the place name itself may be a corruption caused by mishearing or linguistic shifts over time. Over the ensuing years, different branches of the Katzenellenbogen family modified or shortened their surname to variations such as Katz, Katzin, Katzenelson, Kellen, Ellenbogen, or just Bogen. It is also worth noting that the surname Katzoff (also spelled Katsov or Katsav) is likewise unrelated to Katz as an abbreviation of Kohen Tzedek. Instead, Katzoff seems to derive from the Hebrew word katzav, meaning “butcher.”

There are some cases where a surname acronym refers specifically to the family patriarch after whom all the descendants are named. The surname Yaavetz stems from its forefather Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1697–1776), who signed his name as “Yaakov Emden Ben Tzvi” (as he was son of the Chacham Tzvi). Descendants adopted Yaavetz as their family name. A notable example is New York politician Jacob Koppel Javits (1904–1986), after whom the Javits Center in New York City is named. I think that historian and philologist Zev Yavetz (1847–1924) was also a descendant, although I could be wrong about this connection.

In a similar way, Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (1843–1905), famously known by the acronym of his full name, Aderes, has descendants who adopted that acronym as their family surname. For example, Rabbi Mordechai Aderet of Monsey carries on the legacy of his esteemed ancestor. In this way, Aderet – which literally means “cloak” in Hebrew – has become an enduring emblem of their family lineage.

Acronyms were not only used for surnames in the Ashkenazi world, but rather this phenomenon existed among Sephardim as well. One of the most prominent Sephardi rabbis of the last few centuries, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (1724–1806), is famously known by the acronym Chida. But his surname Azulai has sparked debate over its origins.

Some have argued that Azulai is an acronym of the Biblical phrase ishah zonah v’chalalah lo yikachu (Vayikra 21:7), which prohibits kohanim from marrying certain women involved in illicit relations or their offspring. This interpretation, however, was strongly opposed by Rabbi Avraham Azulai (1570–1643), an ancestor of the Chida and a renowned Kabbalist who authored Chesed L’Avraham. As Chida writes in Shem HaGedolim, Rabbi Avraham Azulai was aware of the damaging implications of this exegesis, so he declared a formal excommunication against anyone who disseminated or expounded this interpretation of his family name. His concern stemmed from the fact that his Azulai family was not of kohanic lineage. Associating the surname with this verse would imply that an illicit marriage in their ancestry had disqualified them from Priestly status.

Rabbi Professor Meir Benayahu (1926–2009), in his authoritative biography of the Chida, brought to the fore relevant evidence from the Jewish community on the Greek island of Corfu. There, he cites, it was customary to assign the surname Azulai to children born of a kohen who had married a woman prohibited to kohanim. Thus, the stigma associated with the surname Azulai that Rabbi Avraham Azulai sought to suppress does have some basis in at least one community at least one point in time. Based on this, Benayahu suggests differentiating between two spellings of the surname: Azulay with one aleph was allegedly linked to families disqualified from priestly status, while Azulai with two alephs (where the penultimate letter is an aleph) was an entirely different surname unconnected to kohanim.

Others suggest that the surname Azulai has nothing to do with any Biblical verses and is not even Hebrew! In Berber languages spoken in North Africa, such as Tamazight, azul means “hello” and was used as a greeting. One theory says that Azulai the surname comes from that. Another theory connects the name to the Spanish word azul, meaning “blue” (or more precisely “azure,” as the “r” and “l” sounds are often interchangeable in some linguistic contexts). Alternatively, Azulai may be linked to the place name Bouzoulai, a Berber-Arabic town in Algeria.

An additional example of a Sephardic surname derived from an acronym is Ben-Chamu. The name Chamu has been interpreted as an acronym for Chananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – the three companions of Daniel in the biblical Book of Daniel.