Levin

[Dan Nussbaum]

I just came across the given name "Levin." I have never seen "Levin" used as a given name before.

Can any of the members of this esteemed list serve tell me how common "Levin" is as a given name?

Also if it is related to the Hebrew name Levi (לוי) or the common surnames Levin and/or Levine?

Daniel Nussbaum II, M.D., FAAP
Retired Developmental Pediatrician
Rochester, New York

Tone can be misinterpreted in email. Please read my words with warmth, kindness, and good intentions.

[Igor Kusin]

Heinrich W. Guggenheimer & Eva H. Guggenheimer. 1992. Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary. New York City, Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House

They state that Levin is a Russian form of Lev (= Leo "lion"), nickname for Yehuda.

Igor Kusin

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[Alexandre Beider]

It is related neither to the Hebrew name Levi, nor the commonest Jewish surname in the Russian Empire Levin (Russified form of Levi 'Levite').

From my book "A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names" (2001):

Etymology: German Christians used Lewin (also spelled Levin) as a variant of the Germanic name Liebwin (HDV 3:51, 53). Although etymologically Liebwin has nothing to do with lion, the fact that Lewin sounds like Western Yiddish Lev(e) (NHG Löwe) 'lion' could have been responsible for the borrowing. Jews used it as a variant of Western Yiddish Lev(e), as a kinnui for Judah.

References (sorry for inverted Hebrew spellings that are due to MS Word)

Lewin, Lewen [Latin] 1308, 1322 Cologne (Hoeniger 1888:119, 157) – Levin [German] 1340 Frankfurt (Kracauer 1914:338) – Lewen [Latin] 1347 Silesia (Brann 1896:XXIV) – Leowen [German] 1378 Swabia (Miedel 1909:106) – Lewen, Leuwin, Leuwen, Lewyn [German] 1380, 1385, 1471, 1534 Hessen (Löwenstein 1989:1:34, 39, 97, 295) – Lewin [German] 1505 Brandenburg (Heise 1932:203) – ןוויל [Hebrew] 1595 Poland (Halperin 1945:11) {Levin?} – ןאוויל [Hebrew] before 1568 (SH 226) {Levin?}. His shem ha-qodesh was Judah – ןיול, ןיוול [Hebrew] 1702, 1739 Amsterdam (van Straten 1996:172) – Levin [German] 1716 Hamburg (Grunwald 1904:191) – Lewin [German] 1812 West Prussia (surname adoption lists) – ןיוועל, ןוויל [Hebrew] 19th-century Eastern Europe (Lavot 1868:17a) – Lewin [Polish] 19th-century Łomża, Mariampol (civil records) – *Левин [Russian] 19th-century Courland, Lithuania, Belorussia (surnames Levinovich and Levinov; DJSRE 366) – Левин [Russian] 1907 Rossieny (voter lists).

One can see that the given name was used mainly (but not exclusively) in northern provinces. In Eastern Europe in the 19th-20th centuries, by Litvaks only for whom it was rare (while Leyb was one of the most common given names).

Alexander Beider

-------------------------------------------------------

[Jules Levin]

Of course, Levi was a Hebrew tribal name, and is not connected to the Slavic root for "lion", from which Russians get the word 'lev' and the personal name Lev, nickname L'ova.   Jewish surnames Levi, Levin, Levitan, etc., etc. are derived from the Hebrew, not from Russian.  People with this surname are often Leviim/Levites, clearly showing that the source is Hebrew, not Russian.  It is possible that the only Russian Levin not a convert was the hero of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and he chose the name based on his on first name Lev/L'ova.  In fact many Tolstoy specialists argue about whether the name should be pronounced Levin or L'ovin, showing its rarity as a Russian surname..  

The connection with Yehudah is that the Lion was the animal symbol of the tribe of Judah.  The name Ari = Lion, and may be associated with it now.  On the other hand, my father was born in Chicago, named Louis, nickname was Leib--.  "lion" from Yiddish/German, not Russian.  Leib was so common that it became a "kosher" Hebrew name, like Aleksander, for official naming purposes in the synagogue.   In my 78 years I have met some people named Levi as a first name, but they were African-American, and not Jewish..

-----Original Message-----
From: Igor Kusin
Sent: Feb 28, 2018 10:17 AM
To: jewish-l...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Jewish Languages] Levin

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Heinrich W. Guggenheimer & Eva H. Guggenheimer. 1992. Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary. New York City, Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House

They state that Levin is a Russian form of Lev (= Leo "lion"), nickname for Yehuda.

Igor Kusin

[Biro, Tamas]

What if the Hebrew and the Russian connections (interpretations,
associations) reinforced each other? Same for the name Katz ('kohen
tzedek' and German 'cat'), by the way. If you look at the people having
the name, you find evidence for the Hebrew origin, but the specific form
of the name and its popularity might have also been influenced by its
alternative interpretation in the other language. A typical story
illustrating the truly intertwined multilingual character of Jewish
societies.

Tamas

[Alexandre Beider]

1) The initial question was about the given name Lewin/Levin, not the surname. I hope I provided the answer. It was considered by Jews to be related to 'lion' though originally was borrowed from German Christians for whom it had nothing to do with 'lion'.

2) Concerning the surname Levin/Lewin:

2.1 The etymology proposed by H. and E. Guggenheimer (Levin is a Russian form of Lev (= Leo "lion"), nickname for Yehuda) is false as a majority of etymologies proposed in their book. The authors were just guessing, browsing various dictionaries, having knowledge of neither the history or geography of Jewish surnames, nor of languages (other than German and Hebrew) they proposed for etymons. The book is to be used with a great caution.

2.2 Different etymologies are valid for different regions.

2.2.1 For the Russian Empire, it is (but for a few possible exceptional families) a Russified form of Hebrew Levi. The root is Hebrew, but the final "n" was added for the surname to look as if it were ending in a East Slavic possessive suffix -in. (This pattern of Russification is found in many other Jewish surnames of the area.) Only this etymology can explain the fact that the surname is the most common Jewish surname in the Pale of Settlement, taken by numerous independent families. Only in a few families from the Russian Empire, their surname could be derived from the identical Jewish given name that was rarely used in that area.

2.2.2 For Germany / Prussia, the surname Lewin (also spelled Levin) was significantly less common than in the Russian Empire. It was frequently adopted only in northern regions (cf. comprehensive geography / references in Menk, Lars. 2005, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Germany and Prussia), i.e. exactly in the same regions where Jews used the identical male given name (that, consequently, was the etymon for the surname). We cannot exclude, nevertheless, a possibility that in some German Jewish families the name was taken as a Germanized form of Hebrew Levi (note that the given name Lewin was commonly used in northern Germany by Christians too). For Galicia and Poland, the etymology of Lewin is similar to that of Germany / Prussia.

Note that before the turn of the 18th-19th centuries when Ashkenazic Jews were forced  by various administrations to take fixed surnames, the surname Lewin is known neither in Germany, nor in Eastern Europe.

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[Dan Nussbaum]

Jules,

People can be African-American and Jewish at the same time.

I have a non African-American cousin who is named Levi.

You do not answer my question about the use of "Levin" as a given name. i.e. Levin Kipnis, Russian born Hebrew author.

Daniel Nussbaum II, M.D., FAAP
Retired Developmental Pediatrician
Rochester, New York

Tone can be misinterpreted in email. Please read my words with warmth, kindness, and good intentions.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jules Levin <amel...@earthlink.net>
To: igor.kusin <igor....@zg.t-com.hr>; jewish-languages <jewish-l...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Mar 1, 2018 5:52 am
Subject: Re: [Jewish Languages] Levin

Of course, Levi was a Hebrew tribal name, and is not connected to the Slavic root for "lion", from which Russians get the word 'lev' and the personal name Lev, nickname L'ova.   Jewish surnames Levi, Levin, Levitan, etc., etc. are derived from the Hebrew, not from Russian.  People with this surname are often Leviim/Levites, clearly showing that the source is Hebrew, not Russian.  It is possible that the only Russian Levin not a convert was the hero of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and he chose the name based on his on first name Lev/L'ova.  In fact many Tolstoy specialists argue about whether the name should be pronounced Levin or L'ovin, showing its rarity as a Russian surname..  

The connection with Yehudah is that the Lion was the animal symbol of the tribe of Judah.  The name Ari = Lion, and may be associated with it now.  On the other hand, my father was born in Chicago, named Louis, nickname was Leib--.  "lion" from Yiddish/German, not Russian.  Leib was so common that it became a "kosher" Hebrew name, like Aleksander, for official naming purposes in the synagogue.   In my 78 years I have met some people named Levi as a first name, but they were African-American, and not Jewish..

-----Original Message-----
From: Igor Kusin
Sent: Feb 28, 2018 10:17 AM
To: jewish-lang...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Jewish Languages] Levin

Heinrich W. Guggenheimer & Eva H. Guggenheimer. 1992. Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary. New York City, Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House

They state that Levin is a Russian form of Lev (= Leo "lion"), nickname for Yehuda.

Igor Kusin

On 27.2.2018. 1:59, 'Dan Nussbaum' via Jewish Languages wrote:

I just came across the given name "Levin." I have never seen "Levin" used as a given name before.

Can any of the members of this esteemed list serve tell me how common "Levin" is as a given name?

Also if it is related to the Hebrew name Levi (לוי) or the common surnames Levin and/or Levine?

Daniel Nussbaum II, M.D., FAAP
Retired Developmental Pediatrician
Rochester, New York

Tone can be misinterpreted in email. Please read my words with warmth, kindness, and good intentions.

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