The present database covers 1,484 given names, their various spellings and their diminutives born in medieval Spain, in the countries all around the Mediterranean Basin, in the three north-European communities of: Amsterdam, Hamburg and London as well as in the Caribbean.    Each name has the following details provided: the name, its root name if dealing with a variant or diminutive, the gender, the language, the meaning, the place where it was first found and its source, and the diminutives of the root names.

Selection of Names:
   The names are Jewish but also vernacular ones especially among women. The male vernacular names are mostly those that were used as “classical” equivalents of Jewish names, such as Albert for Abraham or Maurice/Moritz for Moshe.
   Because of the variety of sources, the many languages the names are written in, and the different transliteration rules from an alphabet to another, the number of spellings for a single name is large. The numerous diminutives are the result of the diversity of cultural environments Sephardim lived in.

Gender:
   The gender is given because it is not always obvious.

Language:
   This is the language in which the name is given. Sometimes names are a compound of two elements from two different languages. In other cases it was impossible to determine the original language as in cases where it could be Spanish or Italian – two languages with very strong Latin roots. In such cases the Language is entered as Spanish or Italian.

Meaning:
   A meaning is provided for all the names except eight where it was unclear.
   In addition to the strict meaning, the following details were added.

• For biblical names, the role in the Bible and the exact citation (Book name Chapter : Verse).
• Many biblical names do not appear transliterated from Hebrew spelled such as Yosef, Shmuel, Yaakov but with their “foreign” spelling such as Joseph, Samuel, Jacob. These last spellings. are the versions found in the Septuagint and Vulgata first translations of the Bible in foreign languages of the original Hebrew names. In the present database, this detail has been shortened to: “Septuagint and Vulgata version of”.
• Several short explanations about the name choice and/or frequency.
• Vernacular or Hebrew equivalent, if known
• “See” reference in order to indicate that the root name is listed.
• “See also” reference to names with a similar meaning.

Place and Source:
   The aim of this place/source list was to cover all the parts of the Sephardic Diaspora. This is why the sources are not only published material but also archival material mostly computerized and posted on www.SephardicGen.com (SG) and even several diminutives current in Morocco and Bulgaria or Serbian based on my personal knowledge.

    Once the sources were compiled, there were no planned order for examining the sources and extracting the names from them. A name with a specific spelling as well as the place/source where it was found was entered only once. From that point on, only a different spelling of the already included name, from the same or a different place/source, was entered.
    Below is a table of places and sources.

Country/Place	Source  as cited in the DB	Source Language	Kind of Source
Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Erets Israel, Germany (Hamburg), Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Portugal, Syria, Tunisia	Ketubot Databases	Hebrew	Databases on SG
Algeria	Livre d'Or (by MJM. Haddeu, Agiers, 1871)	French	Book
Algeria	Marciano. Malkhei Yeshurun (J’lem, 2000)	Hebrew	Book indexed on SG
Algeria, Croatia, Gibraltar,Libya	Tagger and Kerem: Guidebook (Avotay, 2006)	English	Book
Algeria, Constantine	1880 Constantine Voters	French	Database on SG
Bulgaria	Group Passports to Israel	Bulgarian	Archival  material
Bulgaria	Personal Knowledge
Caribbean	Arbell. Jewish Nation in the Caribbean (J’lem, 2002)	English	Book
Caribbean, Jamaica	Jamaica Tombstones(by Barnett, J’lem ,1997)	English	Book
Egypt	Fargeon. Juifs d'Egypte (Cairo, 1938)	French	Book indexed on SG
Egypt, Alexandria	Alexandria Weddings, 1934	French	Database on SG
Erets Israel, Greece, Italy, Libya, Macedonia, Netherlands (Amsterdam), Yugoslavia (ex)	Deported to Bergen Belsen (Bergen Belse, 1995)	German	Book indexed on SG
Erets Israel	Montefiore censuses 19th cent.	Hebrew	Database (Montefiore Foundation, London)
Germany, Hamburg	Biographisches Lexikon (Hamburg, 2000)	German	Book
Greece, Ioannina	Matsas. Ioannina Jewish Names	Greek	Book
Greece, Salonica	Nehama. Salonique (Salonique, 1835-1978)	French	Book indexed on SG
Greece, Salonica	Recanati. Salonika1943. Jerusalem, 2000	English	Book partially indexed on SG
Lebanon, Beirut	Beirut Cemetery	Arabic/Hebrew	Database on SG
Macedonia, Monastir	Cohen. Monastir (N.Y., 2003)	English	Book
Morocco	Corcos.Prenoms juifs marocains (J’lem 1978).	French	Book
Morocco	Laredo. Noms de Juifs du Maroc (Madrid, 1978)	French	Book
Morocco	Personal Knowledge
Morocco, Fes	Ovadia, Fas (Jerusalem, 1979).	Hebrew	Book
Netherlands, Amsterdam	Amsterdam Jewish Marriage 1598-1811	Dutch	Book
Serbia	1876 Belgrad Census	Serbian	Database on SG
Serbia	Personal Knowledge
Spain (medieval)	Sefarad database	Catalan/Spanish	Database on SG
Tunisia, Tunis	Attal. Registres matrimoniaux (J’lem, 1989)	French	Book
Turkey	Galante. Juifs de Turquie Istanbul, 1940)	French	Book indexed on SG
Turkey	Personal knowledge
Turkey, Istanbul	Istanbul database	Turkish	Database that first on D.Kazez's website, now off-line
UK, London	Bevis Marks Synagogue – Burials (London, 1997)	English	Book

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