My great grandmother Bertha (Hadassah) Plotnovsky Guttenberg and her sister Rebecca Plotnovsky Berkowitz born in Raczki in Suwalki Gubernia were the eldest and youngest children of Jacob Plotnovsky, with 20 years between them.Both came to Hull, UK in respectively the 1860s and 1880s. When each had a baby (both had 12 children) they gave their maiden names as either Plotnovsky (surname given by authorities in old country) or Jacobs (patronymic after their father).

However Rebecca's gravestone gives her father's name as Yom Tov and I note that others included this name apparently in honour of rabbis or others who were famous in the Jewish world. There seem to be several medieval scholars called Yom Tov in Spain, Portugal and France etc , and also in 17th century Bohemia and German states. And more appropriate to the geographical area and time,  I note a Yom Tov Lipman Lipkin (1846-1876) who was born in Kovno and was the son of Rabbi Yisroel Santer, father of the Musar movement.

Does anyone else have ancestors with the name Yom Tov? And where were they from and who were they named after? And did the name go hand in hand with Jacob?

Jill Whitehead, Surrey, UK

The earliest known Jew named Yom Tov lived in the Gaonic era (8th-9th centuries), and the most well known are the Tosafist Rabbi Yom Tov of Joigny (died in York massacre of 1190) and Yom Tov Lipman Heller (known as the Tosfot Yom Tov) who lived in Eastern Europe 1579-1674. 

The name means “good day” or “holiday”. I suspect the origin is in a translation of a similar-meaning French or German  name like Bonhomme/Guttmann (“good man”). 

Aside from being named for someone with that name, it may also connote a birthday coinciding with a holiday. 

My 8x great-grandfather was named Yom Tov Jaffe. He was born at Nikolsburg now Mikulov, Czechia in about 1600 and died there about 1657.
He came from a long line of rabbis.

Gary Binetter
Tel Aviv, Israel

"Chanayah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum (22 May 1836 – 15 February 1904)^[1] was the Grand Rebbe of Siget, and the author of Kedushath Yom Tov, a Hasidic commentary on the Torah he wrote in 1895". My mom's uncle was named Chananyah Yom Tov Lipa after him.

Alex Goldinger

The name Yom Tov can stand on its own -  it doesn't have to be combined with Jacob or any other name.  I had a relative named Shlomo Yom Tov who, according to another  relative was was named after Yom Tov Lipman Heller because he was a relative, but I have not been able to confirm that connection.

Ira

Ira Leviton, New York, N.Y.

(and great-nephew of Shlomo Yom Tov Lewitan)