Origin
Jacob : Jewish English Welsh German Portuguese French (mainly Alsace and Lorraine) Walloon Breton Dutch Flemish Swedish Danish and Norwegian: derivative via Latin Jacob(us) from the Hebrew personal name Ya‘aqob (Yaakov). In the Bible this is the name of the crafty younger twin brother of Esau (Genesis 25:26) who took advantage of the latter's hunger and impetuousness to persuade him to part with his birthright ‘for a mess of potage’. The name is traditionally interpreted as coming from Hebrew akev ‘heel’: Jacob is said to have been born holding on to Esau's heel. In English usage the name Jacob is regarded as distinct from the name James but they are of identical origin. In North America the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages for example Assyrian/Chaldean or Arabic Yaqub Yakub Yacoub or Yacob Slovenian Jakob and Jakop Czech and Slovak Jakub and also their patronymics and other derivatives (see examples at Jacobs and Jacobson). The name Jacob is also found among Christians in southern India (compare Chacko) but since South Indians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames the southern Indian name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.
Benjamin : Jewish (Sephardic and Ashkenazic) English French West Indian (mainly Haiti) and African (mainly Nigeria and Tanzania); Hungarian (Benjámin): from the Hebrew male personal name Binyāmīn ‘Son of the South’. In the Book of Genesis it is treated as meaning ‘Son of the Right Hand’. The two senses are connected since in Hebrew the south is thought of as the right-hand side of a person who is facing east. Benjamin was the youngest and favorite son of Jacob and supposed progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 35:16-18; 42:4). The personal name was not common among Gentiles in the Middle Ages but its use was sanctioned by virtue of having been borne by a Christian saint martyred in Persia in about AD 424. In some cases in medieval Europe it was also applied as a byname or nickname to the youngest (and beloved) son of a large family; this is the sense of modern French benjamin. In North America this surname has absorbed cognates from other languages e.g. Assyrian/Chaldean Benyamin and Italian Beniamino.
Coppard : from a Middle English (from Old French Middle Dutch or both) personal name *Coppard an extended form of Cop a pet form of Jacob. Compare Coppin.perhaps from Middle English cop(e) coppe ‘top head’ + the pejorative suffix -ard perhaps for someone with a large head. Compare Testar.
Copper : 1: English (Kent and Surrey): occupational name either from Middle English copere a variant of cupere ‘cooper maker or seller of casks buckets and tubs’ found late as copper or from Middle English copper cupper ‘maker of cups and small vessels’ (Old Norse koppari).2: English: in Sussex and perhaps the adjacent counties probably also a variant of Coppard either from a Middle English (from Old French Middle Dutch or both) personal name Coppard (an extended form of Cop a pet form of Jacob) or perhaps from Middle English cop(e) coppe ‘top head’ + the pejorative suffix -ard perhaps for someone with a large head.3: Altered form of German Kopper.
Dorking : 1: variant of Dorkin either from Middle English Dorkin or as a mid-18th- and 19th-century spelling of Dawkin(g). Compare Jacob Dawking 1802 in IGI (Sheering Essex) which may be a spelling of either name. 2: from Dorking (Surrey). This name may have survived as Dorkin Dorkings and Derkin but more commonly as Darkin and Darkings; see Darkin (2).
Ersser : unexplained. Compare Jacob Erser 1604 in IGI (Wollbach Lörrach Baden-Württemberg); Wilhelmus Erssers 1646 in IGI (Hambach Rheinland Prussia).
Esau : English: from the Biblical personal name Esau deriving from a word meaning ‘hairy’ in Hebrew. This was adopted as a personal name among Nonconformists in the 17th century hence the surname especially in south Wales. Esau was the elder twin brother of Jacob who supplanted him (Genesis 25:25) and became the ancestral patriarch of the Israelites.
Fishel : 1: Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Fishl literally ‘little fish’ used as a vernacular equivalent for the Biblical Efraym (Ephraim). Ephraim became associated with the fish because he was blessed by his father Jacob (Genesis 48:16) with the words veyidgu larov ‘Let them grow into a multitude’ the verb yidgu containing the root letters of Hebrew dag ‘fish’.2: Americanized form of German Fischel.
Gad : 1: Danish: nickname meaning ‘sting point’. Alternatively from the Biblical personal name Gad (see 5 below).2: Polish: nickname from gad ‘reptile’ metaphorically also ‘mean individual’. Alternatively a derivative of gadać ‘to talk to chatter’.3: English (Middlesex and Surrey): variant of Gadd.4: Arabic (mainly Egypt): from a personal name based on Arabic jād ‘serious earnest’. Bearers of this surname are both Muslims and Christians.5: Jewish (Israeli): from the Biblical personal name Gad borne by one of the sons of Jacob (Genesis 30:11). As a surname it was taken instead of some original Ashkenazic or Sephardic surname.
Hirsch : 1: German: from Middle High German hir(t)z ‘deer stag’; a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of deer a nickname for someone thought to resemble a deer or stag or a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a stag. It is also found in some central European countries for example in Czechia and Slovenia often as a translation into German of corresponding Slavic surnames e.g. Jelen. In some cases this is also a standardized form of the Gottscheerish (i.e. Gottschee German) surname Hiris.2: Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Hirsh ‘deer’ which is common because of the association of the deer with the Hebrew personal name Naphtali deriving from the blessing by Jacob of his sons (Genesis 49: 21) in which Naphtali is referred to as a ‘hind let loose’. Compare Deer Jelen Jelinek and Jelonek.
Israel : 1: Jewish German Welsh English Haitian and African (mainly Nigeria and Tanzania): from the Hebrew personal name Yisra’el in German and English Israel ‘Fighter of God’. In the Bible this is a byname bestowed on Jacob after he had wrestled with the angel at the ford of Jabbok (Genesis 32:24–8). In Germany it was used as a personal name in the Middle Ages among Christians too and in Wales and southern England it was used among Nonconformists from the 17th century onward.2: Jewish: surname adopted by Jews with reference to the ancient Kingdom of Israel destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 BC or to the concept of Jewish nationhood or in modern times to the state of Israel.3: Altered form of English Ezell.
Joseph : English French German Jewish West Indian (mainly Haiti) and African (mainly Tanzania and Nigeria): from the personal name Joseph Hebrew Yosef ‘may He (God) add (another son)’. In medieval Europe this name was borne frequently but not exclusively by Jews; the usual medieval English vernacular form is represented by Jessup. In the Book of Genesis Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob who is sold into slavery by his brothers but rises to become a leading minister of the Pharoah in Egypt (Genesis 37–50). In the New Testament Joseph is the husband of the Virgin Mary which accounts for the popularity of the personal name among Christians. In North America the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages e.g. Polish Józef Slovenian Jožef Assyrian/Chaldean Yosep Yousep Yosip and Yousip forms that are predominantly Arabic such as Yusuf Yousef and Yousif or Ethiopian such as Yosef and also patronymics such as Polish Jozefowicz and Armenian Hovsepian. Joseph is one of the most frequent surnames in Haiti (along with Jean and Pierre) and elsewhere in the West Indies (e.g. in Trinidad and Tobago Saint Lucia Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica). The name Joseph is also found among Christians in southern India and Indonesia but since South Indians and Indonesians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames the southern Indian and Indonesian name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US. Compare Josef.
Levy : 1: Jewish (Ashkenazic and Sephardic): from the Biblical personal name Levi from a Hebrew word meaning ‘joining’. This was borne by a son of Jacob and Leah (Genesis 29: 34). Bearers of this name are Levites members of the tribe of Levi who form a hereditary caste who assist the kohanim (see Cohen) in their priestly duties. Compare Levi and Lowy 1.2: Czech (Levý): nickname for a left-handed person from the adjective levý ‘left’. This surname is also found in Slovakia.
Manasse : French (Manassé) and German: from the Biblical Hebrew personal name Manasseh from nashah ‘make to forget’. This was the name of Joseph's elder son brother of Ephraim so named in the hope that Joseph's father Jacob might begin to forget the sorrows of the past.
Peretz : Jewish: from a Biblical name borne by a grandson of the patriarch Jacob meaning ‘burst forth’ (Genesis 38:29).
Rachel : 1: German (mainly Bavaria): probably a topographic name from Middle High German rach ‘rough steep’.2: German: habitational name from a place called Rachel in Bohemia.3: Sorbian: from an Upper Sorbian derivative (originally also spelled Rachol) of the personal name Rach.4: French: from the female Biblical name Rachel meaning ‘ewe’ in Hebrew. In the Bible (Genesis 28–35) Rachel is the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.5: English: habitational name from an unidentified place.6: English: perhaps sometimes from the Middle English and Biblical personal name Rachel (see 4 above) which is absent in England before the Reformation. Whatever its origin the surname has sometimes been influenced by the Hebrew name; it is otherwise unexplained.
Woodmore : variant of Wadmore; see Whatmore. Compare James Woodmore 1790 Jacob Wadmore 1804 in IGI (Brading IoW).
Yegge : Americanized form of Swiss German Jäggi from a pet form of Jacob (see Jacob).
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
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