Shneur Zalman (like Menachem Mendel, Aryeh Lieb, Naftali Hirsch, Binyamin Zeev,
Yehuda Lieb) was a common pairing of names long before the Besht.

Barbara Mannlein
Tucson, Arizona

On Aug 15, 2016, at 5:04 PM, David E Goldman lugman@verizon.net wrote:

I had a great-great-grandfather back in Nova Ushitsa (probably the town of
Kalyus) in southwestern Ukraine named Shneur Zalman KRASINSKY. Not a single
person I ever asked of my relatives knew whether their ancestry or family
customs were Lubavitch, since the first rebbe of Lubavitch was Rabbi Shneur
Zalman of Liadi. Considering how far Nova Ushitsa is >from the centers of
Lubavitch chassidim I have always assumed Shneur Zalman was likely to have
been common among non-Chabad Jews as well.

My great-great-grandfather was probably born in the late 1820s, and Rabbi
Shneur Zalman died in 1813 to the far north in Hadiach, Ukraine, so I guess
it is theoretically possible that my great-great-grandfather was named for
him.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this issue in terms of someone being

named Shneur Zalman despite being far >from the center of the Chabad chassidim?