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The Big Story

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Kestenbaum among Jews. Pomerantz is
derived from the German for "orange."

Polish, Russian Variations

Not all European Jewish tree names
come from German. Many tree names
common among Jews come form Polish.
Jablon (or Yablon) is the Polish word for
apple tree," and, in some cases,
Yablonsky may be derived from it.
Sosna is Polish for "pine tree," and the
Americanized names Sosnik and Sosnick
come from the Polish for "pine forest."
The Polish word for "cherry tree" is
czeresnia, and in America, this has been
changed to Ceresnie.
Dab is Polish for "oak," but it is pro-
nounced "dowmb." Ultimately, it is the
source of names like Dambrowsky.
Buk is a beech tree, which may be
anglicized to Book.
Gruszka is a pear tree, and it is pro-
nounced "grushka." It may be the source
of a name like Grushkin or Gruskin
(which also is derived from a place
name).
To really confuse things, consider the
case of Migdal. To the trained eye, it is
an obvious Hebrew name that means
"tower" (Migdal David, the Tower of
David, is a famous Jerusalem landmark).
To a Polish speaker, however, migdal is
the word for "almond" (although in
Polish, the word is pronounced
"migdow"). Thus, all the Jewish families
named Migdal may have more in corn-
mon with the Mandelbaums than with
any tower.
Russian also has contributed tree
names to Jews. The Russian for "pine" is
sosnin, similar .to its Polish counterpart.
Dubov is Russian for "oak," and topokv
is "poplar," which may be where the
Israeli actor, Chaim Topol, gets his
name.
Some Russian tree names are the same
as Yiddish names, but have different
meanings. Lipkin means "lime tree," but
Jews named Lipkin probably derive their
name from the Yiddish lieb kind,
"beloved child." Likewise, Elkin comes
from the Russian word for spruce, but
some Jewish may get Elkin from the
given female name, Elkeh, a variant of a
German name.
Milgrom, meaning "pomegranate," is a
name derived from Yiddish without a
detour through German or a Slavic lan-
guage, although ultimately, it comes
from Latin for "thousand" and "seed," a
reference to the abundance of seeds in
the fruit, native to Israel.

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