Naming Methodology on the Mielec Family Tree

Due to the many, many ways that people spelled names over the years, I use a method where anyone born before WWII (and sometimes after) is recorded with their “standard/most common Hebrew names”. It makes it a LOT easier to match people whose names could be spelled many different ways.

So what do I mean by “standard/most common Hebrew names”? For the most part, I use the reference guides by Dr. Alexander Beider:

For given names, I generally use Handbook of Ashkenazic Given Names and Their Variants (Avotaynu, 2009)
For family names, I generally use A Dictionary Of Jewish Surnames From Galicia (Avotaynu, 2004)

However I have taken some liberties in modifying the listings in Beider’s books based on 20+ years of researching Jews from Mielec.

For given names, I put what Beider generally considers the standard Hebrew name first, then followed by all spellings found in parentheses. For example, if a person’s name was “Anna”, I record this as “Chana (Anna)” because “Chana” is the standard Hebrew name for Anna. If the standard Hebrew name is not clear, I will put a question mark like this: “Esther? (Etel)”. I do not do this generally for people born after 1945 .

For family names, I always list the family name from birth, and use the most common spelling found in the Mielec powiat. If the family spelled it differently, I put it in an “Alias/AKA” category. For example, the family name “FISCH” is used for all names with similar spellings such as “FISH”, “FISCHMAN”, “FISHER”. “FISCHER”, etc…

Sometimes I am wrong and have grouped names together that are different. It is not a perfect science. And it is quite possible that you will disagree with what I use for “standard/most common Hebrew names”. I can only say that this is only used to manage a massive 15,000+ person family tree and not to disrespect any particular spelling of a family’s name.

Maternal vs Paternal Naming

Many Jews from Mielec carried their mother’s surname as opposed to the common Western standard of carrying their father’s name. The reason for this that the local (P0lish) government did not recognize Jewish weddings. In order for a marriage to be “official” in Poland, Jews had to go to a local office and pay fees. Many Jews chose not to do this.

In other cases the local (Polish) government would use Latin designations for maternal vs paternal given names: false (f) for a child born from an unregistered marriage, and recte (r) for a child born from a registered marriage.

An Example

“Aba Isak HELLER f NUSSBAUM” and his wife “Blima Reizel OFFEN” are recorded in the Mielec Birth Register as having a son on August 25, 1901 named “Szymon Hersch NUSSBAUM”.

I enter this information in the tree as follows:

Mother: Given names are standardized; surname is kept as it is the usual spelling.
- Blima’s Tree Entry ➡ Bilha Roza (Blima Reizel) OFFEN.
Father: Given names are standardized. Surname “HELLER f NUSSBAUM” contains connector “f”. The order of the names is usually “father f mother” but not always true and hence cannot be assumed. “HELLER” is not the normal spelling so it is changed to “HALLER” with the original spelling “HELLER” entered under alias. Hence Aba’s father is entered as “HELLER or NUSSBAUM”, Aba’s mother is entered as “NUSSBAUM or HELLER”.
- Aba’s Tree Entry ➡ Abraham Isaac (Aba Isak) HALLER f NUSSBAUM; HELLER in alias/aka
- Aba’s Father Tree Entry ➡ [unknown given name] HALLER or NUSSBAUM. HELLER in alias/aka
- Aba’s Mother Tree Entry ➡ [unknown given name] NUSSBAUM or HALLER. HELLER in alias/aka
Son: Given names “Szymon” is standardized; other given name “Hirsch” and surname NUSSBAUM are kept because they are already standardized.
- Szymon’s Tree Entry: Simon (Szymon) Hirsch NUSSBAUM.

List of Standardized Given Names and Common Spellings

Male

Mielec Standardized Given Name	Common Jewish Spellings	Common Polish / German Conversions	Common American Conversions	Notes
AARON	Aron; Aharon
ABRAHAM	Abram; Avrum; Abe	Adolf
ABISH	Abba			I make a distinction between ‘Abba’ and ‘Abe’ but often these are confused / muddled
AKIVA	Akiwa; Kiwe; Kiwa; Akiba
ALEXANDER	Sander; Sender; Sandor	Alex; Sendek
ALTER		Adolf
ANSHL	Anschel; Amschel; Anszel; Auczel
ARYEH	Ari; Arie; Arje			‘Aryeh’ is very often combined with ‘Leib’ i.e. ‘Aryeh Leib’
ASHER	Ascher; Aszer; Ojzer; Ozer; Uscher; Usha; Usher; Uszer	Ascek; Oskar	Oscar
AVIGDOR	Awigdor; Vigdor; Wigdor	Viktor	Victor
BARUCH	Boruch	Bunek	Benjamin; Bernard
BENEDICT	Beinish; Beinisz		Bernard
BENJAMIN	Beniamin	Benek
BENZION	Benzyon; Benzija; Bension
BER	Berl; Berel; Beryl; Berish; Berisch; Berysz		Bernard	‘Ber’ is very often combined with ‘Dov’ i.e. ‘Dov Ber’ – so often in fact that I treat them as the same name (as does Bieder)
BETZALEL	Betsalel; Bezalel; Calel; Calev; Zalel; Zallel;
CHAIM
ELIEZER	Laser; Lazer; Leiser; Leser
ELIJAH	Elias
HIRSCH	Herschel	Zisza
ISAAC	Yitzchok; Eisig	Izak	Isidore
ISRAEL		Izrael	Isidore
JOSEPH	Josef; Jozef
LEIB	Leibish		Leo
LEVI		Lewi
MEIR		Majer
MICHAEL	Mechel	Michał	Michael
MOSES	Moshe	Maurycy; Mojżesz	Morris; Moe
NAFTALI
WOLF	Zev
YECHIEL	Chiel

Female

Mielec Standardized Given Name	Common Jewish Spellings	Common Polish / German Conversions
ADINAH		Adela
BILHA	Beila; Beile
ESTHER	Etel; Etla; Etta
FRIEDA	Freindel
GITEL	Gitl
HINDA
MIRIAM		Marjem
PEARL	Perel; Perl
RACHEL	Ruchel
ROZA	Rosa; Reisel; Reizel
SARAH	Sara
SHAINDEL	Scheindel
SIMCHAH	Sima
TOVA	Tauba
TZIRIL	Cerla

List of Standardized Surnames and Common Spellings

Mielec Standardized Surname	Alternate Spellings	Common American Conversions	Notes
BIGELEISEN	BIEGELEISEN
FERDERBER	FERBER
FRIEDMAN	FRIEDMANN
HALLER	HELLER
HUDES
KARTAGENER	KARTAGARER
LANDER	LIND
LEIDNER	LEINER
REISS
RUBIN	RUBEN
RUBINFELD	RUBENFELD
SALZ
SCHULLER	SCHILLER
SINAI	SAN; SANN
SIEGELMAN	ZIEGELMANN
SPITZ