Can you tell if a name is Jewish?

Question:Such as Streimer?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Such as Streimer?

Not altogether. There was a time when people did not have surnames and when they were given surnames, Jews frequently had the surnames that were common in their country for their situation.

Some names in the U. S. are viewed, I believe, as Jewish as people with those names that immigrated to the U. S. were mostly Jewish, but back in their home countries they were shared by Jews and non Jews alike. I had a Jewish grandfather and his family name was originally Altman.
However it is simply a German name that means "old man."

Also to be a Jew according to Orthodox and Conservatives Judaism, you must have a Jewish mother, not necessarily a Jewish father. They state you get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father. If you don't have a Jewish father, you belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on the mother's side of the family.

So a person's name can be McDougal and if they have a Jewish mother they are Jewish according to the Orthodox and Conservative tradition.

I found Streimer on a list of surnames in a record for Polish Jews in Rozdol, but I believe the database has been closed. Just the list of names that appeared in the database. Other instances of the name pop up on this site's records as well.

No. German and other European names have roots in people's trades and occupations rather than their religions.

Well Streim is a municipality of Luddmansdorf, Austria. So Streimer is someone who came from Streim.

Now Austria forced Jews to take surnames earlier than most European areas (historically Jews used patronymics such as Itsak ben Ibrahim - Isaac son of Abraham). They forced this in the late 1700s. So could Austrian Jewish Families from that region have taken the surname Streimer? Sure. But it is probably also, maybe more prevalent, in non-Jewish populations as in this region, it just means "from Streim". There may even be another source somewhere else for this surname - there often are.