Macedonian Jewish surnames, known by the umbrella term of Monastirlis, are those carried by individuals born in or descended from people born in the Jewish communities of Skopje, Bitola and Štip in Northern Macedonia, as well as in the other areas in the Ottoman vilayet of Manastir, which also included smaller areas of northern Greece, Albania and Kosovo. Additionally, the Macedonian Jewish diaspora is also present in the United States, Chile, Israel, France and countries in the former Yugoslavia like Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Research your ancestors on MyHeritage
Macedonian Jewish naming conventions
While the first Jews arrived in the area known today as North Macedonia during Roman times, the overwhelming majority of the Macedonian Jews are Sephardic, owing to the large immigration of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula following the Alhambra Decree that expelled all the Jews from the peninsula, as well as the the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. A small minority of the Macedonian Jews are of Romaniote origin, descending from the first Jews who arrived in the region and which used Yevanic (Judaeo-Greek) instead of Ladino at home; these have mostly Greek-sounding surnames.
As in most Sephardic communities, it was common to name the firstborn Bohor or Bohora. Monastir Jews also used numbradas (nicknames) often, and which became socially accepted, like Lus Kizerus (the cheesemen), Il Farineru (the flour seller), Kastanye (chestnut) and gayu (rooster).[1]
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Spanish origin
Jews had been using surnames in the Iberian Peninsula since around the X Century, and they brought the custom of using hereditary family names with them to the Ottoman Empire. Some of these names may be of toponymic, patronymic, or personal origin, like:
- Confino, from confinado, meaning "exiled" in Spanish[2]
- Saporta, from the Catalan Ça Porta, used by someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town. Also related to Sasportas ("six doors")
- Mursa, from the city of Murcia
- Toledano, from the city of Toledo
- Gerassi, from the city of Jerez
- Casorla, from the city of Cazorla
- Calderon, derived from the Latin caldaria ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker. Sometimes spelled Kalderon
- Pardo, one of the names of the color brown in Spanish
- Aroesti, from the Aragonese rostir ("to roast") and refers to the occupation of chestnut roaster. Also spelled Arueste or Aroeste
- Alboher, from Albojera, a town in Extremadura
- Testa, from Tausta, a town in Aragon
- Peso, from a town in the Pontevedra region in Galicia
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Portuguese origin
After leaving Spain in 1492, many Jews fled to Portugal. A significant number became cristãos-novos and adopted Portuguese-sounding surnames to blur any traces of their Jewish origins. After leaving Portugal fleeing the Inquisition, some of them continued using their new surnames, like for instance:
- De Mendonsa, a corruption of the surname Mendonça, which in turn is of Basque origin. Sometimes spelled Mendonsa
- Rosilio, from Rosilho, a square in Lisbon where auto-da-fe ceremonies were held during the Inquisition. Sometimes spelled Rozilio
- Istrumsa, from Estremoz, a town in Portugal. Also spelled Strumsa
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Arabic origin
During their 1,000 year-long presence in Spain, Jews adopted many surnames coming from Arabic, as this was the language of Al-Andalus. Some of these surnames are:
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Hebrew origin
A significant number of surnames used by the Macedonian Jews are based in the Hebrew language, which may be associated with their strict observance through the generations.
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Biblical Hebrew origin
Many surnames among North Macedonian Jews are derived from given names of biblical characters, like:
- Nachmias, taken from the prophet Nehemiah. Sometimes spelled Nahmias
- Mosse, taken from the prophet Moses
- Aron, taken from prophet Aaron, the first High Priest
- Ovadia, taken from prophet Obadiah
- Israel, one of the names of the prophet Jacob. Sometimes adopted by converts to Judaism
- Asael, from Ashael, the name of one of the nephews of King David
- Cohen, the name used for the priests who served in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple of Jerusalem. Sometimes spelled Akoen
- Levi, the name of one of the sons of Jacob and also a role in Jewish liturgy
Macedonian Jewish surnames of post-Biblical origin
Other surnames carried by Macedonian Jews are based in personal or physical attributes, or influenced by the advent of political Zionism, like:
- Sadikario, based from Tzadik, a person who is righteous, with the Spanish ending -ario[2]
- Katan, menaing "short" in Hebrew
- Kamhi, from Kemach, the word in Hebrew for "flour" and which indicates the carrier was a miller
- Mevorach, meaning "worthy of praise" or "with many blessings"
- Nehama, meaning "support in the time of mourning"
- Honen, meaning "gifted"
- Bahar, based on the acronym for "son of the honored rabbi". Sometimes spelled Bachar or Behar
- Molcho, from מלך, the Hebrew word for "king" with the Spanish ending -o
- Mizrahi, meaning "oriental". Associated with Jews from the Middle East who settled in Macedonia
- Hazan, from the word for religious cantor. Sometimes spelled Hassan
- Zion, one of the names of Jerusalem
- Ben-Zion, meaning "son of Zion"
- Sarfati, a person from France (Western Europe)
- Ashkenazi, a person from Germany (Central Europe)
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Romaniote origin
A small number of Macedonian Jews can trace their roots to the first Hebrews who settled in the Balkans, especially in Greece, during the last centuries of the Roman Empire and who adopted a Hebraized version of the Koiné Greek spoken by the rest of the population in the empire. While many Romaniote Jews married Sephardic Jews, their surnames were passed by their male descendants to the next generations. Some of these surnames have a noticeable Greek rendering, like:
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Italian origin
After their Expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula, many Sephardic Jews settled in what today is Italy, in cities like Venice, Naples, Florence, Rome, Bari and Livorno, where they were joined by those who baptized and stayed as crypto-Jews and left Spain and Portugal as Cristãos-novos or "new christians". Later, some of these Jews, now known as Frankos, arrived to the Ottoman Empire. Some of the Macedonian Jewish surnames associated with an Italian origin are:
- Florentin, from the town "Castiglion Florentino" in Tuscany[2]
- Massa, from the town Massa in Tuscany
- Romano, from the city of Rome
- Franco, meaning "from France", which then referred to Western Europe
- Varsano, from a town in Puglia
- Russo, from Rosso, meaning "red" in Italia, but also associated with Ashkenazi Jews who settled in Italy from Russian lands
- Capuano, from the city of Capua in Campania
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Ashkenazi origin
Macedonian Jewish surnames of Turkish origin
Of all countries in the Balkans, North Macedonia is perhaps where Ottoman influence has been the biggest, with Turks being almost 4% of the total population nowadays. Some Jews may have adopted toponymic surnames based on the Turkish word for those places, or even descriptive surnames, like for example:
Celebrities of Macedonian Jewish origin
- Sarah Aroeste, American singer/songwriter and author of children's books in Ladino
- Žamila Kolonomos, Partisan, writer, academic, and political activist from North Macedonia
- Maty Grunberg, Israeli sculptor, the last Jew born in Skopje before the deportation of the Macedonian Jews to Treblinka.
- Estreya Ovadya, Partisan, posthumously proclaimed People's Hero of Yugoslavia, fought under the nom de guerre Mara
Explore more about Macedonian Jewish surnames
- Jews of Macedonia Project dashboard at Geni
- Sephardic Ketubot from Macedonia at JewishGen
- 1945 List of Jews registered in the Jewish Community in Skopje at European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
References
- ↑ Kolonomos, Jamila. Monastir without Jews. Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, 2008. ISBN 97818886857094
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Alboher, Shlomo. קהילת מונסטיר (ביטולה), מקדוניה. Indiana University Press, 2005. ISBN 9654400588
- ↑ Moisés Hasson Camhi. Family Names of the Jews of Monastir.