How Do You Choose an Hebraicized Last Name?

A working list of how great rabbis actually did it — by sound, by meaning, or by their father’s name.

Q. How Do You Choose an Hebraicized Last Name?

Our rabbis teach us that there’s a certain amount of Divine spirit which rests upon parents when choosing a name for their child, and it would obviously be improper for me to withhold that great honor from you. All I can do is suggest examples of great rabbis and how they Hebraicized their family names. You’ll see that some translated the meaning, some kept a similar sound, others totally changed the name to express and declare their ideals, while others went by their father’s name (as was done in the Tanach and throughout the generations). The most common is to find a translation and declaration of ideology which also sounds somewhat similar to the original (possibly for reasons of family or convenience/regularity). Nevertheless, all of the options are open.

The following list can give you some idea how they chose: The Chatam Sofer: Schreiber became Sofer (= “scribe”, translation), R. Israelite became Yisraeli (transl. and ideology), R. Menkin became Neria (ideal), R. Shlichter became Yashar (ideal), R. Green became Yarok or Yarkoni (transl.), R. Goronchik became Goren (sound+ideal), R. Citrone became Kitruni (sound), R. Menashe Klein became HaKatan (transl.+ideal), Rav Kook temporarily became Shur (= “see”, transl.+ideal), R. Grodner became Gershuni (after his father, Gershon), R. Meir Berlin became Bar-Ilan (sound, plus after his father, the Netziv who was a great “tree” of Torah), R. Webber became Shzuri (transl.), R. Hershinson became Ra’anan (= “fresh”, ideal), R. Kretchmer became Ushpizai (= “host” or “inn-keeper”, trans.), R. Benesovsky became Bina (sound+ideal), R. Yehuda Klein became Amital (ideal), and R. Langenauer became Aviner (ideal+sound).