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Section I · Sephardic Names List — Sources

The Sephardic names list

Every name in Harry Stein's list carried a code in brackets — (2), (6a), (22c), (29) — saying which book or register it came from. This is that key: 49 sources and 41 sub-sections, rebuilt so an old citation can still be resolved.

Where the list went

The search engine behind this page ran on Stein's own server and did not survive the site going dark. The names it held cannot be reproduced here, and inventing a replacement list would be the opposite of what he was doing.

What replaced it is the archival register: 476 catalogued units from 9 archives, 1476–1836, naming 215 surnames. Where Stein cited a published book that identified a name as Sephardic, the register cites a specific document — with its full reference, and a link into the holding archive's own viewer, so you can read the page yourself.

Symbols

(*)
A coat of arms, crest or family history was found for the name, and was published in Section VI, Heraldry.
(+)
A known or suspected converso family, as distinct from an individual converso. Stein's note on this is worth keeping: almost anyone appearing before the Inquisition was a converso, because the Inquisition had no jurisdiction over Jews — only over baptised Christians.
(~)
Upload complete: the whole of that source had been entered into the list.
(0)
Self-identified.

The sources

Stein's numbering, kept exactly as he set it so old citations still resolve. The selection of works is his.

  1. (1) Civil records of Amsterdam

    Netherlands.

  2. (2) Records of Bevis Marks, the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London

  3. (3) Burial register of the Bethahaim Velho cemetery

  4. (4) History of the Jews in Venice — Cecil Roth

  5. (5) Finding Our Fathers — Dan Rottenberg

    Each name is followed by a short biography and further references. Stein recommended it as a general guide to Jewish genealogical method.

  6. (6) The Inquisitors and the Jews in the New World — Seymour B. Liebman

    • (6a) People who appeared before the Inquisition in New Spain.
    • (6b) People who appeared before the Inquisition in New Granada.
    • (6c) People who appeared before the Inquisition in Peru.
    • (6d) People who appeared before the Inquisition in the Río de la Plata.

  7. (7) A History of the Marranos — Cecil Roth

  8. (8) Jews in Colonial Brazil — Arnold Wiznitzer

  9. (9) Precious Stones of the Jews of Curaçao: Curaçaon Jewry 1657–1957

  10. (10) The Jews of Rhodes — Marc D. Angel

  11. (11) List of 7,300 Names of Jewish Brides and Grooms Married in Izmir, 1883–1901 and 1918–1933

    Brides. Supplied by Dov Cohen, Nof Ayalon, Israel.

  12. (12) List of 7,300 Names of Jewish Brides and Grooms Married in Izmir, 1883–1901 and 1918–1933

    Grooms, from the same publication.

  13. (13) The Jews of New Spain — Seymour B. Liebman

  14. (14) Los Sefardíes — José M. Estrugo

    Editorial Lex, Havana, 1958 — the section on surnames current among Sephardim.

  15. (15) The Jews of the Balkans: The Judeo-Spanish Community, 15th to 20th Centuries — Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue

  16. (16) The Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux — Frances Malino

  17. (17) Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation — Miriam Bodian

  18. (18) The Sephardim of England — Albert M. Hyamson

  19. (19) A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, vol. I — Yitzhak Baer

    • (19a) Volume II.

  20. (20) A Life of Menasseh ben Israel — Cecil Roth

    Names from the Sephardic community of greater Amsterdam — a principal haven and transfer point for Sephardim leaving Iberia.

  21. (21) Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391–1648 — Benjamin Gampel

  22. (22) History of the Jews in Aragon — Jean Régné

    Royal decrees of the House of Aragon recording Sephardic names between 1213 and 1327. Stein's warning still applies: deriving a modern equivalent from an 800-year-old form is hard, prefixes (Aben, Ibn, Aven, Avin, Ben) attach to many stems, and a name absent from the list may be present under a prefix. A few — Adret, Cavallería — survive unchanged.

    • (22c) Names identified as converso in the records.

  23. (23) Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews — David Gitlitz

    Names and places of residence, often connected to Inquisition proceedings. Names the author did not identify as Sephardic were not included.

  24. (24) The Historical Archaeology of the 17th and 18th-Century Jewish Community of Nevis, British West Indies — Michelle M. Terrill

    PhD dissertation, Boston University, 2000.

  25. (25) The Jews of Jamaica — Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright

    Tombstone inscriptions and dates of death, 1663–1880.

  26. (26) Die Sefarden in Hamburg — Michael Studemund-Halévy

    The Sephardim of Hamburg. German names appear through intermarriage.

  27. (27) Historia de la Comunidad Israelita de Chile — Moshé Nes-El

  28. (28) Judíos Conversos: los antepasados judíos de las familias argentinas — Mario Javier Sabán

    Three volumes, with family trees. Many of those listed appeared before the Inquisition. Stein noted that 'Jew' and 'Portuguese' are used almost interchangeably in these records.

    • (28a) Portuguese Jews expelled from Buenos Aires, 1603, with vessel and date of arrival.
    • (28b) 'Portuguese' of Santiago del Estero, with year and point of entry.
    • (28c) 'Portuguese' of Córdoba, with point of entry and year of arrival.
    • (28d) 'Portuguese' of San Miguel de Tucumán.
    • (28e) 'Portuguese' of Talavera, 1607.
    • (28f) 'Portuguese' of La Rioja.
    • (28g) 'Portuguese' of Salta.
    • (28h) 'Portuguese' of Villa de Madrid de las Juntas.
    • (28i) 'Portuguese' of Jujuy.
    • (28j) 'Portuguese' registered in Santa Fe, 1643.
    • (28k) Sephardim expelled from Santa Fe, with place of birth and year of arrival.
    • (28l) Jewish Portuguese families of the Río de la Plata.
    • (28m) Names in the records of the Lima auto-da-fé of 1639.
    • (28n) The Oliver-Cavia family, descended from the house of Ha-Levi Benveniste.
    • (28o) 'Portuguese' of Corrientes, 1643, with age and place of birth.

  29. (29) Sangre Judía — Pere Bonnín

    About 3,500 names used by Jews, or assigned to them by the Holy Office, drawn from lists of those penanced by the Inquisition and from censuses of the juderías.

  30. (30) Raízes Judaicas no Brasil — Flávio Mendes de Carvalho

    Sephardim caught up in the Inquisition in Brazil, often with date of birth, occupation, parents' names, age and residence — and the names of relatives.

  31. (31) ETSI

    Periodical published by Laurence Abensur-Hazan and Philippe Abensur; names largely, but not only, from France and North Africa. Cited as 31/volume/issue.

  32. (32) Genealogia Hebraica: Portugal e Gibraltar — José Maria Abecassis

    Sephardic families who returned to Portugal and Gibraltar after centuries of expulsion, with family trees for many.

  33. (33) Jewish Historical Society of England

    List supplied by David Ferdinando.

    • (33a) The First English Jew — Lucien Wolf
    • (33b) Crypto-Jews under the Commonwealth — Lucien Wolf
    • (33c) The Jewry of the Restoration — Lucien Wolf
    • (33d) The Cemetery of the Resettlement — A. S. Diamond
    • (33e) Foreign Trade of London Jews in the 17th Century — Maurice Woolf
    • (33f) The Community of the Resettlement, 1656–84: A Social Survey — A. S. Diamond
    • (33g) Maria Fernandez de Carvajal — Lucien Wolf
    • (33h) Carvajal and Pepys — Wilfred Samuel
    • (33i) Jews of the Canary Islands — ed. Lucien Wolf
    • (33j) Process of Antão Rodrigues Lindo, native of Badajoz, Kingdom of Castile

  34. (34) In Sure Dwellings: A Journey from Expulsion to Assimilation — Margot F. Salom

    Names from the author's research into her own family, supplied by her.

  35. (35) Histoire des Juifs de Rhodes, Chio, Cos, etc. — Abraham Galanté

    Names extracted and supplied by Daniel Kazez.

  36. (36) Noble Families Among the Sephardic Jews — Isaac da Costa, Bertram Brewster and Cecil Roth

    Genealogies of prominent Sephardic families of Iberia, England and Amsterdam, documenting many name changes and aliases — valuable for tracing a family from Spain to England or the Netherlands.

  37. (37) A Origem Judaica dos Brasileiros — José Geraldo Rodrigues de Alckmin Filho

    517 Sephardic families punished by the Inquisition in Portugal and Brazil. Text supplied by the author.

  38. (38) El Libro Verde de Aragón — Isidoro de las Cagigas

    • (38a) Sephardic name to converso name.
    • (38b) Converso name to Sephardic name.
    • (38c) Sephardic names of Aragon.

  39. (39) Aliases in Amsterdam — Vibeke Sealtiel-Olsen

    ETSI vol. 4 no. 12, March 2001: aliases used by Sephardim in Amsterdam.

    • (39a) True Sephardic name to alias.
    • (39b) Alias to true Sephardic name.

  40. (40) The Circumcision Register of Isaac and Abraham de Paiba, 1715–1775

    From the archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of Bevis Marks, London. Includes those circumcised and their godparents.

    • (40a) Additional circumcisions, 1679–99.
    • (40b) Marriages, 1679–89.
    • (40c) Births of daughters, 1679–99.

  41. (41) Conversos on Trial — Haim Beinart

    The converso community of Ciudad Real and its Inquisition trials in the mid-15th century, sometimes with relatives' names, house locations and professions.

  42. (42) Apellidos judíos en documentos medievales del Reino de Murcia

    Jewish names in medieval documents of the Kingdom of Murcia — largely original forms, not altered by conversion.

  43. (43) Tarazona Judía

    A memorial site for the Jews of Tarazona. 43(c) marks converso names.

    • (43c) Converso names.

  44. (44) Els Apellidos Bíblics de Mallorca — Miquel Ferrà i Martorell

    • (44c) New Christians or conversos of Mallorca.

  45. (45) Apellidos de Judíos Sefardíes

    From the Comunidad Israelita del Principado de Asturias.

  46. (46) Dicionário Sefaradi de Sobrenomes

    Thousands of names of Sephardic immigrants to Brazil, with ports of departure where the authors could establish them.

  47. (47) Sephardim: The Spirit That Has Withstood the Times

    Names of the Sephardim of Curaçao.

  48. (48) The Rise and Fall of Paradise: When Arabs and Jews Built a Kingdom in Spain

  49. (49) The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain — Haim Beinart

    Rich in names and personal detail from the expulsion. Only names the book identifies as Jewish or converso were taken; Stein noted that many others in its glossary still deserve research.

Credit

This bibliography was compiled by Harry Stein, who ran Sephardim.com from 1999 until 2013 and died on 8 August 2015. He indexed these works by hand, over years, and printed a source beside every name he published. The page is restored here because the libraries and genealogy societies that still link to it were linking to something real. See about this site.