Hello - 1. Bunim is a recognized name and in fact at least one illustrious rabbi was named Bunim. I don't think there is any closure on the question of whether it was a contracted nickname for Benjamin or an adopted name from the French "bon homme", good man. It often appears as the kinnui (associated given name to a particular Hebrew name) for Simcha. 

2. A patronymic name is one based on a father's first name, e.g. Zalmanson in your example. Depending on when your Levi Titchak lived, Zalman might have been his father's name, if Zalmanson was adopted directly in response to a law requiring Jews to acquire surnames (in 1804 in Russia, for example, though it took decades for many Russian Jews to conform to that law). Again, depending on when he lived, Zalman might have been a grandfather's or great-grandfather's first name.  
3. As far as I know, it was not standard practice in any location for sons to take on the surnames of the father and mothers to take the surnames of the mother. If you are working from Polish records, last names can be particularly confusing because in many cases clerks recorded the birth using the mother's name, I believe because the marriage had been only a religious ceremony and not also a civil one, but it's not consistent. Sometimes if you're lucky, a clerk will record both parents' surnames and that can help you figure out relationships.
good luck - Judith Singer

Dorfman (born Birzai Lithuania then Riga)  Scher/Blum(born Pandelys Lithuania then Riga) Berman (born Lygumai Lithuania then Jekabpils Latvia
Samuels - UK  Trzmil,Ring and  Dembinski  Zychlin Poland

• Frumkin, Eben Shemuel, pp. 111 et seq.;

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Southern Nevada (JGSSN) invites you to a Zoom meeting at 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on Sunday, April 18: "Town Counsel: Finding Your Ancestor's European Town of Origin" with Emily Garber

To request a Zoom link, please complete this short form: Zoom Link Request.

Members of JGSSN can attend for free.  Non-members can either pay $5.00 on the Donate page. Or you can pay $20 for a subscription to the 2021 series of outstanding speakers (see below).  More detail can be found on our Meetings page.  To become a member and sign up for the 2021 series, go to the Membership page.

Session Description:

One of the most important building blocks of Jewish genealogy research is determining our ancestors’ communities of origin, especially where those places are on today’s maps. Because records were (and are) often kept at local, municipal level or regional levels, successful genealogical research depends upon knowing our ancestors’ correct communities of residence. One cannot successfully jump the pond to Eastern Europe with one’s research until one has established location information from immigrant ancestors’ and relatives’ records in their adopted countries.

About Emily Garber:

An archaeologist by training (B.A., Vassar College; M.A., University of New Mexico), Emily Garber is a professional genealogy researcher, writer and speaker who specializes in Jewish genealogical research.  She has researched both Eastern European and German Jewish communities and immigrants to the United States and Great Britain. She has toured family shtetlach (communities) and explored archives in Ukraine.
 
After retiring from her 30+ year career in natural resources management, Emily earned a certificate from Boston University's Genealogical Research program. She has spoken at eight International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conferences and at the National Genealogical Society’s virtual conference. She has presented talks and seminars throughout the United States, and in Israel and Poland. In the summer of 2020, she coordinated the week-long seminar at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, “Introduction to Jewish Genealogy.” She has authored three articles published in Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy and, for a client, completed two privately published volumes chronicling the 300-year history of a German Jewish family. She writes a family history blog, The Extra Yad (https://extrayad.blogspot.com/).
 
Emily serves on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. She is also Chair of the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group and is on the boards of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society as well as JewishGen’s Ukraine and Romania Research Groups. She was one of the moderators of the JewishGen Discussion Group for about 10 years.

JGSSN 2021 Lecture Series:

Become a member for $20 and attend any or all of the upcoming lectures - https://www.jgssn.org/membership.html:

Ben Kempner

Vice President, JGSSN

1:One of my assumed relatives is Levi Yitchak Bunim Zalmanson. Is Bunim a recognized name or does it have another meaning?
2: What is a patronymic name?
3: Was it standard for sons to take on the surname of the father and for daughters to take the surname of the mother?

Thanks in advance.
Herman Salmenson

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage—the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.  Ayn Rand

RASKIN (Ekaterinaslav).