In my censored question I asked what the family’s original place is, and also what the law is regarding a family that changed its place?

Are you asking what your family’s original place is?
As for changes in custom, these are old and well-known matters. Originally, the custom was determined by the place, and when one moves permanently to a new place one is supposed to adopt the custom of the new place. Nowadays there is no local custom, because in the same place there are several customs depending on ethnic origin, and therefore customs are determined by ethnic-family origin.

With God’s help, 6 Tammuz 5780

A Jew from the former Soviet bloc explained to me that Russian family names are in many cases based on the father’s or mother’s name. Usually the suffix is ov, but in a name ending with a — the suffix is in, and thus someone whose father or mother was named “Yona” would be called “Yonin”; the son of “Beila” would be called “Beilin”; and the son of “Slava” would be called “Slavin.” According to this, the son of “Gorla” would be called “Gorlin.”

Regards, S.Tz. Kailin

The American physician and medical researcher Prof. Robert J. Gorlin (1923–2006) is well known; see the English Wikipedia article about him. In note 3 there, there is a link to an English obituary describing both his scientific achievements and his kindness, sense of humor, and photographic memory, through which he recognized and remembered every one of his students even before meeting them. But I do not know what his family origin was.

Regards, S.Tz.

And may Eugenia (Gena) Gorlin be separated for a long and good life — an expert in clinical psychology and a professor in the psychology school at Yeshiva University, specializing in processes of self-change. On her blog there is an English article on “Corona and the Meaning of Life.”

Regards, S.Tz.

Dear S.Tz., there are no Jews whose origin is Russia — at any rate, not before the year 1917…
Maybe on the MyHeritage site you can discover more details,
it’s worth checking also regarding relatives on my mother’s side, may she live…

Regards, Benjamin “Litvak” Gorlin

To B.G. — warm greetings,

Family names were given to Jews by order of the authorities in the 19th century, and at that time Lithuania, Belarus, and Poland were part of Russia (only Galicia was under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). So family names in the regions under Russian rule were given according to the Russian language, and under Austrian rule in German.

Regards, S.Tz. Loewinger from the imperial realms of Franz Joseph

My dear S.Tz., the Pale of Settlement was not in old Russia; those were annexed regions. Jews were not allowed to live in Russia (except for various isolated exceptions here and there).
Benjamin Gorlin, the Border Policeman

P.S.: Belarus (White Rus) and not Byelorussia (White Russia)!!!

Benjamin said —

The Jewish Pale of Settlement was until 1917 part of the Kingdom of Russia; afterward a significant part of its territory passed to the Soviet Union, and the rest to the states of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia that arose after the First World War. But family names were given in the 19th century, when the area was under Russian rule.

As for “Byelorussia” and “Belarus” — it’s the same thing; the difference is between different languages and different periods. In Jewish sources from the days of the Council of the Four Lands, the country is called “Reissen” (and there was also “Red Reissen”), etc. etc.

And so “Ashkenaz” is “Deutschland,” is “Germany,” is “Germania,” is “Almanya,” is “Neymet-Orsag,” is the land of the Teutons, etc. etc.

Regards, S.Tz. Loewinger,
a man of Hungary, Hungary, Ungarn, “the land of the Hagarites,” and “Magyarorszag,” etc. etc., who is now hungry and going to eat lunch, as they say in the foreign tongue

Dear S.Tz., man of Hungary, presumably you are not a native Russian speaker, so with your permission I’ll comment on what you wrote: the translations of Belarus and Byelorussia are as in my response above; “Rus” is not “Russia” but the Kingdom of Rus, the East Slavic kingdom.
https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A1_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%99%D7%91

With God’s help, 6 Tammuz 5780

To Benjamin — warm greetings,

The distinction between “Russia” and “Rus” is nonsense invented by Belarusian nationalists, who are bothered by the connection between their people and the Russian people (see the Wikipedia entry “Belarus”). If you want to be a Belarusian nationalist, you can Belarusify your name to “Gorlenko” 🙂

In the Middle Ages all the East Slavs were called “Russians” or “Ruthenians.” Just as there was the “Rus of Kiev” (today’s “Ukraine”), so too there was the “Rus of Moscow,” and so on. In German, for example, “Russia” is called “Russland,” and Byelorussia/Belarus is called in German “Weissen-Russland,” White Russia.

In short: “Rus” = “Russia,” just as “Haredim” = “Chareidim” 🙂

Regards, S.Tz. Leivinger

By the way, in Hungarian “lion” is “oroszlany,” literally “Russian girl.” The source is in Central Asian languages such as Turkish, where lion is “arslan.” The Hungarians made a midrash on the name “arslan,” as though it were a compound of two Hungarian words, “orosz-lany,” “Russian girl,” on account of the lion’s blond mane.

Die deutsche Übersetzung von Belarus in „Weiße Rus“ ist jedoch falsch

And to sum up: good is the advice of Mark Gorlin (in an interview with him on the Mensh website): you don’t need to have all the answers. The main thing is to ask the big questions.

Regards, S.Tz.

Archival documents on members of the “Gorlin” family in the U.S., under the heading “Gorlyn Family History” on the Ancestry site.

Regards, S.Tz.

Dear S.Tz., “It seems that the origin of ‘Gorlin’ is from Russia” — see Responsa Maharam Mintz, section 74.
The family name is not Russian, so it would be fitting to whack that Jew from the former Soviet bloc on the head.
P.S.: Gorlingen is a village on the French-German border.

With God’s help, 7 Tammuz 5780

Obviously not every name ending in -in comes from Russian, in which a person is designated after his parents with this suffix, like “Beilin” after “Beila” and “Slavin” after “Slava,” and “Lenin” after “Lena,” and many others.

Obviously “Binyamin” 🙂 or “Berlin” are not of Russian origin, and now you have shown that “Gorlin” is also found outside the Russian sphere of influence, and it may indeed be named after the village “Gorlingen” on the German-French border.

By the way, in my Google searches I also came across Gorlyn as a first name, such as Gorlyn Anderson and Gorlyn Hagenbaumer. It may be that the village too is named after a person of that name.

Regards, Loewinger,
a man of the Swiss village Loewingen or the Chinese village Loe-Wing on the Burmese border where in 1941 Squadron 113 of the “Flying Tigers” operated, though it seems more likely that our origin is from the tribe of Levi 🙂

Dear S.Tz., “Lenin” is named after his mother “Lena” ???

And likewise “Goldin” after “Golda,” “Shifrin” after “Shifra,” “Rivkin” after “Rivka,” “Ruchelin” after Rachel, “Pirkin” after “Mirke,” “Elkin” after Elka, “Ruchemkin” after “Ruchemke,” “Chikin” after “Chayke,” “Chovkin” after “Chovke,” and “Chankin” after “Chanke,” and many more.

The rule is that the suffix is ov, except in a name ending with a, where the family name based on it ends in in.

Regards, S.Tz. Kailin

S.Tz., you didn’t answer my question: is Lenin’s mother named “Lena” ???

Yossi Beilin’s mother’s name is not “Beila,” and President Rivlin’s mother’s name is not “Riv’le,” and Rabbi B. Klmanzon’s father’s name was not “Kalman” either. The origin of a family name is in an ancient father or mother whose descendants’ descendants are named after them.

Family names come from the name of an ancient parent, or from a place of residence where generations earlier the family lived, or from a profession, or from a trait of one of the family’s ancient ancestors. Thus the members of the “Gorlin” family left the village of “Gorlingen” already hundreds of years ago, and the members of the “Shuster” family left shoemaking many generations ago.

“Lenin’s” family name was actually “Ulyanov,” after an ancient ancestor whose name was “Ulyan.” He adopted for himself the name “Lenin,” which existed in the “arsenal” of Russian family names. “Lena” is a well-known female first name in Russian (apparently a short form of “Yelena” = Helena). And apparently the original “Lenin” families derive from an ancient mother named “Lena.”

Regards, S.Tz.

S.Tz., you’re totally baked. This thread killed me with laughter. Of course this isn’t an insult to the content you write — I just really enjoy reading your artistic style.
P.S. And what’s the explanation for my name?

To r — warm greetings,

Why, your name is explained in the weekly portion: “And the slope of the wadis that turns toward the dwelling of Ar and leans upon the border of Moab” — so “Ar” is parallel to “Moab” 🙂

Regards, Eti Molog

You’re awesome, S.Tz.

Dear S.Tz., good morning, a few comments if I may:
1) “And apparently the original ‘Lenin’ families derive from an ancient mother named ‘Lena’” — the origin of the name “Lenin” is from the Lena River, the ninth longest river in the world (about 4,400 km). The name “Lenin” is a pen name, a pseudonym, and does not derive from an “ancient mother” at all. By the way, it should be noted that our acquaintance had additional, less well-known pen names.
2) The suffix ov means “of” or “son of” — for example, the name “Yozhov” is not meant as a patronymic, meaning that the family’s ancestor was called “Yozh” — “hedgehog” — but rather in the sense of “hedgehog-like,” the animal we call a hedgehog.

By the way, according to your method, does the name Stalin come from an “ancient mother” named “Stella”?
Regards, Benjamin

With God’s help, 7 Tammuz 5780

To Benjamin — warm greetings,

“Lena” is both a common female first name in Russia and the name of a river, so I cannot know whether the family name “Lenin,” which Vladimir Ulyanov adopted, derives from the name of an ancient mother in the family or from the river. Indeed, family names can be after a parent, after a place, after a profession, or after a trait — for example “Stalin,” man of steel, as Iosif Dzhugashvili saw himself.

In Jewish family names from the area of Russian rule, I have shown with many examples the existence of the phenomenon: Elkin, Beilin, Gnesin, Dvorin, Dvorkin, Henkin, Ziskin, Chaskin, Chanin, Chankin, Chovkin, Lipkin, Mirkin, Mishkin, Mankin, Notkin, Sirkin, Rivkin, Rivlin, Ruchemkin, Shifrin, Sheynin, Sheynkin, Tomerkin — all of these clearly derive from first names and nicknames.

It seems this stems from the fact that Jews were often called in Yiddish too by reference to their parents. Unlike Jews from Sephardic communities, among whom family names were already common in the Middle Ages, among Ashkenazim there were some dynasties with family names, but most people were simply called after their parents; for example, Rabbi Moshe Rivkes (Moshe of Rivka), Rabbi Baruch Yitelsh (Baruch of Yitel), Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Moshe of Isserl), and so on. And when they went to the Tsar’s registration clerk — may his glory be exalted — the names received the Russian suffix: “Elkin” = “of Elka,” “Beilin” = “of Beila,” etc.

Regards, S.Tz. Donin (after the Duna River 🙂

S.Tz., we won’t dwell too much longer on the discussion, but for the sake of historical precision, “Lenin” never adopted this as a family name, only as a pseudonym, a nickname, as above — similar to Rafael Eitan not adopting the name “Raful,” and similar to Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Enough said.
By the way, why regarding Stalin are you not uncertain whether perhaps his name derives from an “ancient mother” named “Stella”?

To B.G.,

In response to your question, following our discussion I came to a French website presenting common Russian first names. I found “Lena” as a common first name (short for “Helena” / “Yelena”), but I did not encounter there “Stala,” “Putya,” or “Pushka” as first names.

As I showed, the phenomenon is very pronounced in Jewish family names, and to the long list I brought one can also add Begin, Baskin, Vitkin, Michlin, Perlin, Freidin, Fridkin, Feigin, Feiglin, Surkin. Among Jews too there are some names that do not derive from a first name, for example: Churgin, Diskin, and the like, but in the overwhelming majority these are names in which the connection to a first name is clear.

Perhaps the connection to the figure of the mother is more pronounced among Jews, in whose families there was much greater respect for women, in accordance with the guidance of the Sages that a man should honor his wife more than himself, and everyone also grew up on Rashi’s words on the verse “Every man shall fear his mother and his father,” which teaches that the honor and fear due to father and mother are equal. The Jew raised on Torah and the words of the Sages knew how to appreciate his mother, who educated him to love Torah and good character, and sang over his cradle: “The kid will trade in merchandise, but my son will study Torah.”

Regards, S.Tz.

Even the commandment “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” contributed to strengthening appreciation for the figure of the mother, and in this way our discussion connects to the topic of waiting between meat and dairy..

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lenin

S.Tz., a source reference for your consideration regarding the origin of the name “Lenin”; you can spare yourself a lot of French confusion.
P.S.: Stella is a very famous name; it means “star” — see Stella McCartney.
It may be that Stalin’s “ancient mother” was called Stella (little star)!!!

To B.G. — warm greetings,

I did not encounter the first name “Stala,” and therefore it does not seem that the family name “Stalin” would be derived from Stella. By contrast, both the names “Lena” and “Lana” exist, and therefore there are also the family names “Lenkin” and “Lankin.” Accordingly, there is no decisive proof whether the original “Lenin” family was named after the river Lena or the woman Lena.

Regards, S.Tz.

“Gindin” too comes from the first name “Hinda,” since in Russian h is replaced by g. Altogether I listed about forty names derived from a first name with the suffix in.

Since we’re already talking about Hinda, it’s worth noting a common mistake concerning the name “Tzvi Hirsch” — how exactly does Tzvi connect to Hirsch?

And more examples of family names derived from first names: Berchin, Goldin, Gitlin, Gindlin, Gershkin, Dovkin, Doltzin, Zlotkin, Ziskin, Chovkin, Tovkin, Tamkin, Tovkin, Laykin, Levin, Malkin, Mishkin, Mikin, Notkin, Maskin, Notkin, Simkin, Tzipkin, Chernin, Ruchelin, Sheynin, Shternin.

As for Tzvi Hirsch, it seems they preferred to call Tzvi “Hirsch” (= deer) and not trip him up with “gazelle” 🙂 And similarly they paired Yissachar with “Ber” and not with the donkey. The bear, who loves honey, suits the Torah scholar occupied with Torah, which is sweeter than honey, and also “Torah scholars are compared to bears” in that they have no rest.

By the way, animal names are common only among Ashkenazi Jews. I would guess that the gentiles around them were called after animals they hunted, and so names like Ber, Wolf, Loew, and Hirsch were common among them, and the Jews were influenced by this.

By the way, the name “Bunem,” attached to “Simcha,” was explained by the commentators on the Shulchan Arukh as a nickname for “Benjamin,” and since Benjamin was also “Ben-Oni,” they added the name “Simcha” to “Bunem” as a good omen.

Regards, Hirsch Loewinger