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The result of six years of work, my Dictionary of Jewish Bulgarian Surnames, with 803 individual names, has been uploaded on the web at <www.sephardicgen. com/databases/BulgarianSurnamesSrchFrm.htmldatabases. html>. Details given for each surname are:

Surname

All known variants

Language from which it derives

Its meaning

A reference to its historical background in medieval Spain, when available.

These references are all part of Spain databases found at <www.sephardicgen.com/data bases/databases.html>.

In addition, effort was made to save the traditional spellings of the names. In order to take advantage of the dictionary properly, one must take into account the transliteration principles listed in the Dictionary’s introduction. Eight surnames remain of unknown language and/or meaning.

With three exceptions, Jewish surnames in the former Ottoman territory of the Balkans have not been the topic of any comprehensive published research. The exceptions are an (incomplete) booklet, by Asher Moissis, on the names of the Jews of Greece and the Sephardic Onomasticon, by Baruh Pinto, on Turkish Jews, in which the author tends too often to find a nonexistent Hebrew root. In 1967, Isaac Moskona published a long article in the Bulgarian Annual Publication of the Social Cultural and Educational Association of the Jews in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. This article was the first attempt to cover all the Jewish surnames of this community, which numbered about 50,000 souls in 1939. Moskona compiled a list of 509 different surnames based on three sources dating from 1895 to 1967 and presented a meaning for fewer than half of them.

My current research covers 803 surnames, 294 more than Moskona listed. The additional names were found primarily in the collective passports of Bulgarian Jews used when they immigrated to Israel between October 1948 and June 1949. Microfilms of these passports are part of the collection of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem. A brief overview of Bulgarian and Jewish history explains the origin and meaning of these names.

A Brief History of Bulgaria

The first Bulgarian kingdom existed from 681 to 1018 CE (Common Era). During this period, Bulgarians were converted to Christianity (in 865), and in the 10th century, the Bulgarian Prince Simeon received a royal scepter from Constantinople. Bulgaria was then recognized as a czardom by the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1018, Emperor Basil II conquered Bulgaria and made it a province of the Byzantine Empire. Although divided into small principalities, the second Bulgarian kingdom (1185–1396) came into existence after a successful uprising of the Bulgarian aristocracy, and the reign of the Assen dynasty began.

In 1396, the Ottomans conquered Bulgaria, and it remained a component of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years, until 1878. Following the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), and as a result of the Berlin Peace Treaty, Bulgaria became an independent state, although Ottoman rule remained in Macedonia and in Eastern Rumelia. In 1885, these provinces became part of Bulgaria.

During the Balkan Wars and World War I (1912–18), Bulgaria was defeated and lost her territories in Macedonia and Thrace. Bulgaria remained neutral at the outbreak of World War II, but became an ally of Germany in January 1941. As such, Bulgaria allowed the Wehrmacht to pass through the country on its way to conquer Greece. Later, the Bulgarian army replaced the German army in Macedonia and Thrace. On September 9, 1944, the Russian army liberated Bulgaria, and from then until November 10, 1989, the country was known as the Socialist People’s Republic of Bulgaria, part of the Communist regime.

Each wave of migration to Bulgaria brought its own group of surnames to the country, and each included Hebrew names.

Romaniote Jews are first recorded in Bulgaria in the second century CE. They came from Eretz Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple, and their surnames are of Hebrew or Greek origin.

In 1376, some Hungarian Jews expelled from their country found refuge in Bulgaria. They had no surnames and, upon arrival, received some nicknames, mostly in Turkish.

In 1394, Jews were expelled from France. Most moved to Germany and Spain, but some reached Bulgaria via the Danube River. Their surnames reflected the country or the locality from which they came.

King Ludwig X expelled the Bavarian Jews from his kingdom in 1470. Many of these Jews settled in Bulgarian localities along the Danube and in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. Most had no surnames and received nicknames, most of them in Turkish.

When Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II invited the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 to settle in his empire, some went to Bulgaria. Apparently the Spanish Jews arrived in Bulgaria after 1494, settling in the trading towns where Jews already lived. These immigrants quickly became the majority and the leaders of the Jewish community. This status was the basis of their influence in the country over non-Jews as well as Jews, and eventually the other Jewish communities accepted their spiritual and economic leadership. For the next 150 to 200 years, all the Jewish communities, even the descendants of the Hungarian and Bavarian Jews, merged into the Sephardic community, and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) became the common language. From the 10th and 11th centuries, Spanish Jews had surnames that originated in the three languages spoken until then on the Iberian Peninsula:

Jews from Sicily, then part of the Aragon Kingdom, reached the territories of the Ottoman Empire when they were expelled in 1493. Many of their surnames had their origin in the Italian language.

During the reign of Pope Pius V (1566–74), a new wave of immigrants, now mostly from Calabria, Italy, reached Bulgaria with Italian and Hebrew surnames.

Because Bulgaria belonged to the Ottoman Empire during the years 1378–1878, the Turkish language strongly influenced the entire population, including its Jewish community. Even the Ladino spoken there was enriched with common Turkish words. Nine percent of the surnames of Bulgarian Jews listed in the Dictionary are of Turkish origin.

Ashkenazic Jews arrived in Bulgaria at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century from the surrounding countries, mainly from Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. They are not discussed here because excellent sources exist for learning about them.

After the 500-year Turkish occupation, Bulgaria gained its independence in 1878 and a new era began. The Bulgarian language and culture became part of everyday life, Bulgarian became the Jews’ mother tongue. The Bulgarization of surnames began to occur in schools, in the army, and in other official governmental institutions; the Bulgarian patronymic suffix “ov” or “ev,” meaning “son of,” was introduced formally and appended to names. The process was faster and easier once Jews were recruited into the army soon after the independence.

First Compilation of Names

Moskona compiled his 1967 list of 509 surnames from the following sources:

The 1937 list of taxpayers (or family heads) in Sofia, where 25,000 Jews lived. The list included 6,300 names.

Registers of the Sofia Jewish community cemetery (1914–67), with more than 9,000 names.

Bulletins of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (1895–1910), which published names of the donors from Bulgaria and the members of the organization who supported the 14 Bulgarian Jewish schools during the period 1870–1910.

The 1967 subscriber list of the Jewish Bulgarian journal Evreyski Vesti (Jewish News).

On the basis of their general characteristics, Moskona divided all the surnames into two main groups: those of Hebrew origin and those of non-Hebrew or foreign origin. Each group then is divided into several sub-groups. This classification has been followed by other authors of Jewish onomastics.

Surnames of Hebrew Origin

This group includes:

Surnames from the Bible originally used as given names, some of which continue to be used as such

Hebrew surnames designating physical or moral qualities, plants and animals, professions, events connected with the birth of a child, Hebrew translations of foreign languages, surnames composed of ben or bar, and Hebrew acronyms.

This division is not specific to the Bulgarian community, of course. It is common to all the Jewish communities in the world, although the Sephardim and the Oriental Jews, unlike the Ashkenazim, have preserved these names in their original form and pronunciation.

Hebrew names associated with special events such as holidays were chosen as family names.

The group of foreign names translated or linked to Hebrew especially deals with surnames based on the translation to Hebrew of localities outside Eretz Israel such as Yarhi from Lunel, France (Yarhi means “from the moon” and Lunel derives from “moon” in French) , or Harari from Montpellier. (Harari means mountainous and Montpellier includes the word “mont” meaning “mountain.”).

A second type of name in this category is a surname compounded of the Hebrew preposition mi or me meaning from and the name of a locality such as Mefano, or Mitrani for “from Trani” or “from Fano.”

The final group in this category depends on Hebrew grammar in which an adjective designating an inhabitant of a locality is compounded of the locality name followed by i such as in Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi (Ashkenaz means Germany and Ashkenazi, German; Mizrah means Orient and Mizrahi, oriental). This grammatical principle also has been applied to foreign places such as Agranati and Saragosti (from Granada and Zaragoza in Spain, respectively).

Not only in Bulgaria, but all around the Mediterranean Basin, many surnames of Jewish origin were formed by adding the Hebrew prefix ben (son of) or bar (the Aramaic synonym of ben) to a given name such as Barisak, Barna­tan, and Benyakar. This type of surname has its origin in Biblical times showing a patronymic, for example: Yosef ben David for Yosef son of David. Later, such a surname was taken to honor a respected member of the family. The use of the Aramaic bar likely began in the Talmudic and Gaonic periods.

Only three Bulgarian Jewish surnames belong to the category of surnames based on Hebrew acronyms. They are the common surname Bekhar (Ben kvod-Rabbi), Bekhmoaram (Ben kvod Morenu HaRav Menahem) and its parallel Bekhmoaras or Behmoarash for Ben Kvod Morenu HaRav Shimon/Shlomo or Shmuel (Our Honorable Teacher Rabbi Shimon/Shlomo/Shmuel).

Surnames of Foreign Origin

Bulgarian Jewry was composed of the Jews who settled during the Roman and Byzantine eras mixed with groups of immigrants who came at different periods from the 14th century through the start of the 20th century and from various countries such as France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Ukraine. The majority came from Spain. Not surprisingly, Jewish surnames were strongly influenced by the interaction of the nations in which Jews lived before their arrival in Bulgaria.

Hellenic Influence. Archaeological excavations have demonstrated a Jewish presence in Bulgaria from Roman times. Remnants of tombstone inscriptions have been dated from the second century CE. These first Jewish inhabitants are known as Romaniote Jews; they followed the Romaniote or Byzantine prayer rite. Romaniote Jews lived not only in Bulgaria, but also in the southern Balkans, Asia Minor, and the Greek Isles. Since they spoke Greek, it is no wonder that their surnames were of Greek origin—when they were not Hebrew in origin. Some 20 surnames are of Greek origin, for example: Kalo Moskona, Pilosof, and Pizanti. Other well-known Romaniote surnames, such as Mizrahi (from the Orient) and Yerushalmi (from Jerusalem), probably were carried by Jews who had arrived from the East or from Jerusalem. These names are not Greek but are Hebrew.

Hungarian Influence. In 1376, 20 years before the Ottoman Empire conquered Bulgaria, King Ludwig I expelled the Jews from Hungary when that country adopted Christianity as its official religion. Some of these refugees came via the Danube to Bulgaria, where they settled mainly in Nikopol, Pleven, Sofia, and Vidin. These new Hungarian immigrants did not mix with the local Jews. Their rite was different from the Romaniote rite. As a result, they founded separate communities in all the above-mentioned cities. The Hungarian Jews had no surnames and some acquired the Turkish nickname Madjar which means Hungarian. Madjar (the Turkish pronunciation of the Hungarian “magyar”) became a surname. In another case, they were called Budun, from the city of Buda. According to Rosanes (see bibliography), Budun slowly changed over time into Botton (although elsewhere Rosanes has listed the surname Boton as coming from Castille). We also find the name Mamo which derives from Mamos, the Hungarian diminutive of Abraham—but this, of course, is a Hebrew name.

French Influence. In 1394, King Charles VI ordered the expulsion of the Jews of France. Many moved to Germany, while others found their way to Spain. But, like the Hungarian Jews, some traveled on the Danube and reached Bulgaria, where they soon merged into the Romaniote community. A few surnames reflect their origin: Galiko (French in Greek), Sarfati (French in Hebrew), Harari and Yarhi from Montpellier and Lunel in France. Crespin derives from Crespian, near Nimes (in the south of France); Kuzi derives from Cuzy, a locality north of Lyon; and Salinas that derives from Salin, the name of four localities in France.

German Influence. In 1470, Jews expelled from Bavaria by King Ludwig X arrived in Bulgaria. Many settled in the localities along the Danube and in Sofia, the capital. These new immigrants joined the Hungarian Jews and formed united Ashkenazic communities, as their religious rites were very similar. Like their Hungarian coreligionists, most Bavarian Jews had no surnames. Perhaps this is why so many acquired nicknames such as Ashkenazi or Eskenazi (also found as Shkenazi or Shinazki)—all meaning Ashkenazi (German in Hebrew) or Tedeski (German in Italian). The surname Bekhar or Bakhar also belongs in this category, even though it is an acronym of the Hebrew expression (ben kvod rabbi, son of his honor the rabbi). Garti is believed to derive from Gartach in the province of Wuerttenberg.

Arabic and Portuguese/Spanish Influences. Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 also reached Bulgaria after 1494. They mainly arrived via Ragusa (today Dubrovnik) and Salonika through Macedonia. These immigrants had considerable secular and rabbinical knowledge that became the basis for their great influence in the country, and eventually the other Jewish communities accepted their spiritual and economic leadership. Over the next 150–200 years, all the other Jewish communities, even the descendants of the Hungarian and German Jews, all merged into the Sephardic community, and Ladino became the common language.

The surnames of the Sephardic Jews may be divided into three large groups according to their linguistic origin: Arabic, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Arabic Surnames. Arabic was of great influence in the formation of surnames throughout the decades and centuries of coexistence with the Moors in early medieval Spain. The particles or prefixes ibn, abu, and al first penetrated the Hebrew names because of the similarity between these two languages. Ibn is the Hebrew ben (son of), abu is ab (father, in the sense of “the father of” or “owner of”), and the article al (the) replaces the Hebrew article ha (the). For example, the name Ben Danan became Ibn Danan or Abendanan, which, later, under the Spanish influence, became Abendana. In Bulgaria, some 40 surnames were found to have their origins in the Arabic language, without counting the Arabo-Hebrew names just described, such as Aboav, Alfandari, Amar, Danon, and Sidi. Only four surnames are based on geographical places, all of them outside of Spain: Alfassi (from Fes, Morocco), Alhalel (from Hebron), Aladjem (from Persia), and Tarabulus (from Tripoli, Libya).

Most Arabic surnames designate a position, a profession, or a nickname. Examples of names that denote a position, for example, include Almuli, Alsheikh, Alsaid, and Sid or Sidi, or Sidis (chief, governor, or master). Names based on professions include Alfandari (tax collector), Amar (builder), Hakim (physician), and Nadjar (carpenter). Some identical words are found in Arabic and Turkish due to their common ancient Persian origin, although they may not always have the same meaning. For example, Hakim means physician in Arabic, while it means judge in Turkish.

Spanish Surnames. Some 120 Jewish surnames found in Bulgaria are of Spanish origin. Half are names of Spanish localities, sometimes recalling a big city such as Cordoba, Granada, Leon, or Toledo, but more often names of small localities throughout the Spanish provinces. While reading the names of the villages on the road signs when on a trip in Spain, I had the impression of reading a list of Jewish surnames from Salonika, Turkey, or Bulgaria. Once, I even begged my husband, who drove the car, to leave the main road and enter a very small village called Valero, the name of an outstanding Sephardic family that has lived in Jerusalem for many generations and in the 19th century founded the city’s first bank. It was such a small and poor village!

When dealing with names connected to geography, one wonders why immigrants from Spain, Portugal, Germany, and other places, when coming to new countries, did not keep their original Jewish names, but instead adopted new surnames based on the names of the places where they were born. Two possible explanations come to mind. One is that love and nostalgia for their birthplace were stronger than the memories of past miseries; a second reason is that the surnames primarily were given by the absorbing community. According to Moskona, this second explanation is more convincing as the following examples from the recent past illustrate. Community records for state and communal tax purposes included the names of the heads of the families, their given names, and other personal details, including the locality from which they came. Moskona cites such records in Sofia for 1937. He found there for example: Bohor Farhi Pirotli (from Pirot), or Leon Benaroya Lomli (from Lom), and similar others. At that time, these adjectives did not affect the surnames, but this phenomenon points out a habit among the community clerks of adding the origin of a person to his name.

In addition to geography, surnames of Spanish origin describe physical characteristics such as Amarillo (yellow, blond), Calvo (bald), Fresco (fresh), and Ninio (young), while other surnames designate character traits such as Amado (beloved), Angel (angel), Bueno (good), and Kerido (dear). Professions also inspired surnames, but in this category are only Serrero (the one who handles wax for candles), Trapero (ragman), and Purgador (shohet, the one who koshers the meat). Some are nicknames, such as Calderon (cauldron) and Prezenti (gift).

Portuguese Surnames. In his four-volume History of the Ottoman Jews, Shlomo Rosanes lists many surnames used throughout the Ottoman Empire; only seven are of Portuguese origin. The majority of Portuguese Jews found their way north to Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London, while some settled in Salonika and others settled in various cities of Italy and later on founded—with much success—the Jewish community of Livorno. A handful of Portuguese surnames, such as Oliver and Perrera, were found in Bulgaria.

Italian Influence. Jews from Sicily reached the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion in 1493. At that time, Sicily was part of the Aragon kingdom, and the order to leave the country was the same as the one that applied to the Iberian Peninsula. During the rule of Pope Pius V (1566–74), a new wave of immigrants, now mostly from Calabria, in Italy, reached Bulgaria via Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Bosnia.

While in Salonika, each community had its own synagogue. The Sicilian and Calabrian Jews who settled in Bulgaria immediately merged into the Spanish community, especially because the rites were similar. More than 40 surnames of Italian origin are found in Bulgaria. Examples are Benito, Capua, Fano, Florentino, Maestro, Modiano, and Romano. Nearly half of the surnames are linked to Italian localities; the others describe character traits, positions, and professions.

Turkish Influence. As Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, the Turkish language had a great influence on the entire population, including the Jewish community. Even the Jewish-Spanish spoken in Bulgaria was enriched with Turkish words especially of common use such as burkan (jar), and kiushe (corner). It is no wonder that more than 70 surnames of Turkish origin were found in Bulgaria. They are based especially on physical properties, character traits, professions, and nicknames, for example, Bakhshi (gift), Bakal (grocer), Kantardji (one who weighs), Pamuk (one who deals with cotton) and Tchelebi (sir). Many Jews who lacked surnames received nicknames. Over time, these nicknames became surnames, rooted in the Turkish language, including names such as Aslan (lion), Bakalov (grocer plus the Bulgarian suffix ‘ov).

Few Turkish names are linked to geographical places. These include Madjar for Hungarian, Gurdji (from Georgia), Kadas (derives from Kudush—the holy city [Jerusalem]), Shamli (from Damascus; Sham is the ancient Turkish name for Damascus), and Valadji (from Wallachia, southern Romania). None of the surnames with a geographical significance is linked directly to Turkey.

Recent Ashkenazic Influence. Surnames such as Glikman, Hegesh, Heisler, Itzkovitch, Panichev, and Zulman also were found in Bulgaria. These were the names of Ashkenazic Jews who arrived in the country at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries from the surrounding countries, including Russia and Ukraine, and came to form ten percent of the Bulgarian Jewish population. These names are explained in detail by Alexander Beider in his valuable books (see bibliography).

Bulgarian Influence. Even after several centuries, the Bulgarian language did not influence the Jews’ spoken language (Judeo-Spanish) or their surnames to the same degree that occurred with other languages in other countries. The main reason, prior to Bulgarian independence, is that upon their arrival in Bulgarian territory,. Sephardic Jews found an enslaved nation. The local written culture was poor because of the Turkish occupation. The Bulgarians themselves were called only by their given names.

The rise of the national culture began only in the 18th century with the publication of the work of the monk Otets Paissi, who wrote the first comprehensive book on the history of the Bulgarian people. This cultural movement continued to develop and reached its peak with the organization of the revolutionary struggle against the 500-year-long Turkish occupation, which ended in 1878 when Bulgaria achieved independence. Under these conditions, the Bulgarian influence was not felt and had no impact on either the traditions of Bulgarian Jewry nor on their surnames.

After independence, a new era began. During the negotiations on the 1878 Berlin Peace Treaty, the leaders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle from Paris exerted great pressure on the parties, with the result that the Bulgarian nation officially granted equal rights to its Jewish inhabitants. The feudal atmosphere completely changed under the new socio-economic and cultural conditions. The Bulgarian language and culture became part of everyday life, and the Jews adopted it as their mother tongue.

A first step in the “Bulgarization” of the surnames occurred when in schools, in the army, and in other official governmental institutions, the usual Bulgarian suffix ov, ev, or ski was introduced formally. The first surnames to be changed were those of Turkish origin, such as Shekerdji and Kuyumdji, which became Shekerdjiiski, Kuyumdjiiski, Kantardjiev, Kutchukov, Bakalov, and others. The process moved faster and more easily after Jews were recruited into the army. Some were still called by their father’s names, and Nissim became Nissimov; Samuil, Samuilov; Haim, Haimov; and others. Conforming to Bulgarian grammar, surnames of women became Davidova, Abramova, and Zachariyeva.

In the registration of names for taxpaying purposes, for some Jews the locality-related names that were added to their original names became surnames; for example, such names as Samakovski (from Samakov), Kiustdendilski (from Kiustendil), and Plevenski (from Pleven).

The anti-Semitic “Law for the Defense of the Nation,” promulgated in 1941, had a special paragraph on given names and surnames allowed Jews. Given names no longer could be foreign names. (For example, the author’s father-in-law was called Boris in honor of King Boris III. During this period, he was officially known as Shabetay, the name given to him at his circumcision. I found him listed as Shabetay Tagger on a list of Jewish men who were imprisoned in Somovit concentration camp in 1943.) For women, the problem was more acute, because Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish names had almost ceased to be given. Most women had French or German given names. These were changed to Sara. This is why my husband’s Aunt Doris was called Sara from then on. In addition, Jews were ordered to remove the Bulgarian suffixes ev, ov, and ski from their surnames. After Bulgaria had been liberated by the Russian army in September 1944, and the communist regime established, Jews regained their original names.

Israeli Influence. In 1948–49, 90 percent of Bulgaria’s Jews immigrated to Israel. Although most kept their original surnames, a few have hebraicized their names: An Avdala has become Oren, a Bekhar chose Benhar, and Kuyumdjiiski became Shemtov. People in Israel felt totally free to change their names officially. Although Bulgarian Jews are profoundly attached to their Jewish traditions, despite not being very observant, this movement appears to have been dictated by two factors. One was a deep-rooted Zionist nationalism and the wish to honor Ben Gurion’s slogan: “A Hebrew name in the Hebrew State.” The second was a feeling of total freedom after ten long years of hard living conditions, first under a fascist regime and then under a severe, strict communist regime, during which the concept of liberty simply did not exist.

Additional Notes on the Dictionary

In his analysis of the Jewish Bulgarian surnames, Moskona proposed an origin and a meaning for one-third of the root surnames. The microfilmed group of passports, delivered in 1948–49 to the 45,000 Bulgarian emigrants on their way to Israel, are housed at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem. This huge collection of documents and many others enabled the author to add some 300 names to Moskona’s original list. In addition, she consulted various onomastic works, dictionaries in various languages, the Bible, and maps.

The references listed below are all part of Spain databases found at <www.sephardicgen.com/databases/data bases.html>.

Note that many of the surnames, especially the Sephardic ones, were current in the other Ottoman territories. Sephardic Jews who came to Bulgaria from Spain first landed in the ports of Greece, Croatia, and Turkey and then scattered everywhere in the Empire. The study of the Jewish Bulgarian surnames, therefore, should be an important contribution to future research on Jewish Ottoman onomastics.

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Zaimov, Yordan. Bulgarski Imennik. (Dictionary of Bulgarian (given) names) Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1994.

Mathilde A. Tagger has been interested in genealogy since 1986 and is an active member of the Israel Genealogical Society. In 2007, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her research, especially in Sephardic genealogy. Tagger is coauthor of the Guidebook for Sephardic and Oriental Genealogical Sources in Israel (Avotaynu, 2006).