I was always told that the Lippmann name ( also Lieb, Loeb and Liebman) was a
derivative of Levi. My mother's branch originated >from the Gunzenhausen area
of Middle Franconia, Germany. There is a book "Our Lippmann Family" by the
late Kurt E.B. Lippmann, ISBN 0 646 27973 4 Melbourne 1995. Kurt wrote a lot
about the German Lippmanns going back to 1776. If any Lippmann descendant
thinks they might be related, try checking the Family Tree of the Jewish People
section on the Jewishgen website.

Jeremy Goldbloom

I think you are confusing two German/Yiddish words here.

"Lieb", pronounced leehb, is >from the same root as the English "love", while
"Leib" (note the spelling, also "loeb" etc.), pronounced lahyb, is >from the word
for "lion". The first occurs in names such as GOTTLIEB, or LIEBESKIND (or
LIEBMAN), which could be connected to "Baruch" (hebrew for "blessed"), while
the second was often used in association with the name Judah (often in
combinations of Judah/Arye/Leib), because of the biblical verse comparing the
tribe of Judah to a lion.

I think the similarities between "leib" and "levi" might have led people to
connect the two, but I would not automatically assume that any given "Leib" was
a levite.

While the connection between LIEBMAN and LIPPMANN is phonetically plausible,
LIPPMANN sounds suspiciously like an occupational name, but I wouldn't know
exactly what they did, and you would have to do more research into 18th century
middle franconia to find out.


....... Tom Klein, Toronto