Celia Male wrote us about name changes in Bohemia. About that still some
further facts: Many Jewish people did not have surnames in Bohemia
and Moravia before 1788. They had only given names and additional used
father's given name (for example the name Herschel Isaak meant Herschel,
son of Isaak = Naphtali ben Isaak).

In July 1787, Emperor Josef II ordered that by Jan 1 1788, every Jewish
family in Bohemia must have a German family name and thus permitted the
change of given names.

Most people who had a surname before 1788 did not have to change their
surnames. We learn in a letter written by the Prague Chief Rabbi Jechezkel
Landau in 1788 that out of 5,260 families who used surnames before 1788
only circa 100 names were changed. In that time in Bohemia there were about
8,600 Jewish families - therefore there were about 3,300 without surnames
before 1788.

Celia's example is not typical because only one person (Feischl Kraus)
did not changed their surname.

Only 5 people (Katz, Schwartz, Kraus, Gutmann and Petschetzky) and the
father or husband of Ann (Liebsch) have had a surname before 1788 in the
example given by Celia.

Typical is in Celia's example the change of Yiddish given names in
Hebrew/German or in only German given names:

Herschel = Philip
Herschl = Herman (a typical change in similar sounding German name)
Herschell = Neptall (Herschell = small Hirsch; Hirsch = deer = in Hebrew
Naphtali)
Lobl = Jacob (German names which were concurrent Hebrew names were in
this time very popular)
Salomon = Salomon (Unchanged because Salomon is not only Yiddish but
Hebrew and German too)
Kersehell (certainly Herschell) = Gabriel (again a Hebrew/German name)
? = Isak (certainly without change because Isak is not only Yiddish but
Hebrew and German too)
Israel = Israel (the same as Salomon and Isak)
Jacob = Jakob (the same as Salomon, Isak and Israel)
Feischl = Philip
Salomon = Salomon
Lewa = Rubin
Mich = Elias (Mich has taken the Hebrew/German given name of his father)
Bernard = Bernard
Schmaule = Samuel (Schmaule is probable a Yiddish form of Samuel, Samuel
is again a Hebrew/German name)
Enoch = Heinrich
Ann = Anna
? = Marcus
Jab = Adam (again a Tanach/biblical and concurrent German name)

Regards
Hanus Grab