[in progress] Family Names Although not all Romaniote Jews had family names, the practice was well established by the 15th century. There were several types of family names: Patronymics. These were originally the bearer’s father’s real name, but by the time the names entered the records in the 15th and…
Avna’im: Hebrew Afnaim, “truly agreeable.” [link] Possibly Sephardic. Başçı: Transliterated in Hebrew as Bashaytzi or Bashaychi. Turkish, “teacher, scribe.” Beni: Possibly a nickname for Benjamin. Benveneste: Spanish “Benveniste,” indicating marriage into a Sephardic family. Finzi: An Italian Jewish family name dating to at least the 12th century. From the Italian pinchas via the Latin finca.…
Where names have both a Hebrew and a Turkish form, the name is listed as Hebrew form [Turkish form]. Many Biblical names had Arabic forms in general use, but I did not list the Arabic form unless it was given in the sources as an alternative to a Romaniot name.…
Romaniote Jews were notable for giving Greek names to their children. Due to the shortcomings of my sources, this list overstates the number of Greek names in the Romaniote name pool. In practice, roughly 14% of all Romaniote women bore Greek names. Afedra: Greek female form of the Turkish word…
These names were borne by a mix of free, enslaved, and converted women. Because of the data spread, the names couldn’t be conclusively placed in one category or another; there were too many freeborn women bearing them to declare that they were slave names, and too many slave women bearing…
These names could be borne by any Muslim woman, and did not have any connotation of slavery. Âbide Âdile Alemşah: Ruler of the world. From Arabic ʿālam, “world” + Persian shah Amine Asiye Atike Aynî Ayşe: Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife. The names Ayşe and Fâtıma were in stiff competition to be…
Istanbul was one of the great crossroads of the world, and Üsküdar was home to a mixture of Muslims, Jews, and Greek and Armenian Christians. The court records occasionally note that a petitioner is Jewish (yahudiye) or Christian (nasraniyye), but more often they simply note that the person is a…