Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania

Linguistic and semantic characteristics in names, particularly surnames, provide evidence of historical events like migrations, occupational structure, and acculturation. Alexander Avram's book analyzes over 28,000 surnames used by Jews in Romanian-speaking lands from the sixteenth century to 1944, using onomastic methodology to understand their historical development and geographic patterns. It sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of Jewish onomastics and documents and preserves local naming patterns and specific surnames that disappeared during the Holocaust. The book is part of a series on Jewish names and is particularly relevant to scholars studying the Holocaust.

Format: Hardback
Length: 308 pages
Publication date: 23 September 2021
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Linguistic and semantic features in names, particularly surnames, hold valuable evidence of historical phenomena such as migrations, occupational structures, and acculturation. In his book, Alexander Avram assembles and analyzes a comprehensive corpus of over 28,000 surnames used by Jews in Romanian-speaking lands from the sixteenth century until 1944, the end of World War II in Romania. Avram's research spans published and unpublished sources, including Holocaust-period material from the Yad Vashem Archives and the Pages of Testimony collection. Through meticulous analysis of the surnames used by Jews in the Old Kingdom of Romania, Avram aims to enhance our understanding of various sociohistorical trends and contribute to resolving disputed historical and historiographical issues. By employing onomastic methodology, Avram examines the historical development of these surnames, their geographic patterns, and how they reflect the interactions of Romanian Jews with their surroundings. The resulting surname dictionary sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of Jewish onomastics, documenting and preserving local naming patterns and specific surnames that tragically disappeared during the Holocaust alongside their bearers.

Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania serves as the third installment in a series that includes two previous titles: Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora and The Names of Yemenite Jewry: A Social and Cultural History. This book will particularly appeal to scholars engaged in Holocaust studies.

Weight: 538g
Dimension: 159 x 236 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271091426