Leonard Burnstein. He said if he couldn't make it with his own name, he would rather not make it at all.

Apparently Jews are only from europe...interesting.....oh those Jews from Yemen, Iraq, Iran..etc are not all that interesting to write about

I was thinking the same thing. The author mentions Sephardic Jews and then goes on to list strictly Eastern European names. And there wasn't even anything about Middle Eastern Jews, whose names, frankly, sound a lot better than those Ashkenazi ones.

Chill out my Sephardic friends... your names are just as important. Maybe the author needs educating in this department so why don't you skool us?

ASK YOUR GRANDMOTHER INTERESTING STORIES NOT MUCH DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER CULTURE, NAMED AFTER THEIR TRADE OR STATUS OR WHAT EVER THE GUY IN ELLIS ISLAND COULD FIGURE OUT AND WROTE IN THE REGISTER. LOOK UP ELLIS ISLAND ON LINE AND SEE THE SHIP AND THE SIGNATURE OF YOUR (GREAT)GRANDPARENTS IF THEY CAME TO AMERICA ABOUT 1900 - 1930. THERE IS A BOOK IN THE STORES OF ALL FAMOUS JEWS THROUGH OUT AMERICA ANDTHE WORLD.

That was interesting to read about. It's funny....I don't even have a real last name....it's an acronym...one of the ones that comes with being a Kohain. And yes, lets hear about those sephardi names. I'll lob everyone a softball....how about Mizrachi? :)

SEPARDIC LAST NAMES MANY NAMES THAT ARE SPANISH ITALIAN FRENCH TURKISH ARABIC AND HEBREW ITS BEST NOT TO MENTION NAMES. crazy world SEPHARDICS ARE MORE DESCREET I WILL SAY THIS HALAB FOOD (ALEPPO) IS BETTER THAN SHAMI (DAMASCUS) FOOD. inside joke

Thank you for that information. Actually, my great grandparents came from Eastern Europe and some of them had their names changed at Ellis Island. I'm curious about the others because my husband's family originally came from Iraq. JK, as you know Mizrachi (which means from the East) was a name that was given to a lot of Middle Eastern Jews, my husband's grandfather included. He had a hyphenated last name that included Mizrahi, but the family later dropped it.

Of course..that one was a gimme...I was tossing it up like a softball (easy to hit). There are plenty of others.

Yes, I realize that. I just thought perhaps there were other people who didn't. Don't forget get that in the U.S. more than 80% of Jews are Ashkenazi by background, and many American Jews have little familiarity with Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews.

WE DONT KNOW EACH OTHER SO I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW. HERES THE SCOOP A LARGE IRAQI JEWISH COMMUNITY IN QUEENS AND SOMEWHAT IN BROOKLYN. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ASSOCIATIONS TO YOUR PAST. CALL THE SHULS IN QUEENS. OR CALL THE MAIN SHUL FOR SEPHARDIM IN BROOKLYN. ASK ANY SEPHARD, THEY KNOW WHAT SHUL IS WHAT. OH YES THERE IS A SMALL GROUP CONNECTED TO NYC SHUL. ITS VERY DIFFICULT TO GIVE NAMES OR EMAILS PUBLICALLY, BUT I GIVE YNET PERMISSION TO GIVE YOU MY EMAIL AND I CAN GIVE YOU THOSE NAMES , THE MAIN POINT SADLY IS TO LEARN HOW JEWS WERE KICKED ALL OVER THE WORLD AND STILL BEING KICKED. THE BRIGHT SIDE IS THAT WE STILL REMAIN A NATION LOYAL TO GD AND TORAH AND THE JEWS NOT LOYAL MODERNIZING THINGS DONT STOP TO SEE HOW SAD THIS IS FOR THE FUTURE OF JUDAISM, THEY ARE DOING WHAT THE ROMANS WANTED TO DO TO US. WIPE OUR ALLEGIANCE TO GD. I HAVE HEARD FROM SOME RABBIS THAT GD HAS INTENTIONALLY CAUSE THE JEWS TO BE DISPEARSED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD SO TEH NATION OF ISRAEL CAN NEVER EVER BE WIPED OUT, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOME OF US SOMEWHERE RESTARTING AND CONTINUING THE NAME OF 'GD'

Lets see if I get this right. Many Sephardic Jews received their last name from Queen Juana (the mad) Enriquez, the mother of King Ferdinand and the husband of Isabella. Enriquez is a sephardic last name. The Queen's estate could tax those Jews who had only her name.

not the mother of Ferdinand and Ysabel (modern spelling Isabel). By the time Juana la Loca came to the throne well actually her husband (King Carlos I of Spain, Emperor Charles V of Austria-Hungary) was King of Spain -- she (Juana la Loca) went off to the convent there were officially no Jews in Spain because the Jews had either converted to x-tianity or been expelled in 1492. King Ferndinand and Queen Ysabel (modern spelling Isabel) taxed whomever they damn well pleased irrespective of what their name was. The method of taxation was according to household and was effected by Jews who worked as 'tax farmers' for the crown. Mr. Enriquez, may I suggest that in order to enlighten yourself in these matters of the History of Jews in Spain you read books by the historians Y. Baer or B. Netanyahu before you make any more historically incorrect but self-gratuitous statements. with all good wishes for a happy secular new year. an Israeli Samaech Tet!

Here is some info about Sephardic Jews: Many Yemenite Jews are named after thier birthplace: Shoshana Damari (singer) from the city of Damar, Yemen. Margalit Tzan'ani (singer) from the capital of yemen Zan'ah Hedvah Amrani (singer)from the city of Amran. Mizrahi - From the East. (sephardic) Cohen - from Priestly Family of Aaron. Levi - From the singers in the Holly Temple in Jerusalem. Fez- from the city of Fez Maroco. Mugrabi - From Marocco Azulai - A Cohen : from the initials in the Torah: you shall not take a harlot or a profane women, in Hebrew: Isha zonah Vehalla Lo Yikach" Many Sephardic names are named after the father or a Characteristic: Ben Zaken (old), Ben Yoseph, Ben David Etc. The problem is that many Yemenite singers have changed their last name so it is hard to tell. Example: Shimi Tavori, Eyal Golan etc. There is an origin for each name, all you have to do is find the original name and you will see that it is dervied from: Father last name, City of birth, Special Characteristic, or profession in most cases.

SO ELVIS PRESLY IS SEPHARDIC? WHAT ABOUT FRANK SINATRA? HE SOUNDS MARRANO.

I am part Jewish (my father's family came to England from Belgium) and I have often wondered about my last name. Are there any Franks's out there, if so, tell me about our shared name?

Elvis was not Jewish but he did have a connection to Jews. His family lived in the same house ( I forget if it was upstairs or downstairs) of a rabbi and his family and used to listen to the Chazan records of their neighbor. The Rabbi was the rabbi at a shul in Troy NY and he and his wife often spoke of their connection with Elvis and spoke very fondly of him as a real mensch. Surely you must know that Sinatra was Italian.

I found the info reSephardic names interesting. I am Ashkenazi on both sides but I have an affinity to Sephardim. I love your music and your Ladino language. I speak Spanish and was able to converse with Sephardim when i lived in Israel. Even though I was not able to really converse with them, I became very close to Yemenite families . I really loved them and spent several Shabbatot with them. My husband claims a Portuguese grandmother.

Most Ashkenazi and Sephardi surnames are well unauthentic (non-jewish origin or not hebrew), typically the drop the Jewish identity and turn 'goyishe', whilst Mizrahi and Yemenite surnames are well authentic, and at least have some Jewish or Hebrew reference in them. My surname is over 1000 years old, and probably dates back to Ancient Israel, in some form as a first, later adopted as a second name. EG.: Take my name SHARABI- it is an acronym that means Hightop/Mountain of Peace to the Sons of Israel (Harim Shalom Bnei Yisrael)

It doesn't seem to be true that names were changed at Ellis Island. The names on the NYC manifests all match, (with some minor spelling corrections due, e.g., XXXmann ->XXXman, that didn't change the pronunciation) the names on the outbound manifests made in Europe. People did have an opportunity to change their names when they were naturalized. Later, they might have forgotten, or might have been embarrassed about changing their names on purpose, so they blamed Ellis Island officials. The Ellis Island staff was trained specifically in matching the names to the original names, trying to keep the tickets and manifest straight, and they certainly had speakers of all the major languages there on staff, including Yiddish.

There are lots of sloppy errors in this article. Here's a few Cohen does not been Rabbi. It's a tribal name, if it has to be translated, it would be Priest. Burger-->Townsman Levi-->Another tribal name. Spielman-->Musician Kershenblatt-->Cherry leaf Wasserman -- while in German it is a topographic name (where someone lives), in Yiddish it's consider an occupational name. Koenigsberg-->Its the name of a big city. Stein-->Stone Eisen-->Iron worker(Smith) or ironmonger (seller)