Is this a Jewish sur name?

Question:I was wondering if any Jewish people (ethnicaly Jewish) know if the sur name "Hannah" is considered of Jewish or Hebrew ancestry considering it is a name in the book of Samuel.
Thank you, and Shalom!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I was wondering if any Jewish people (ethnicaly Jewish) know if the sur name "Hannah" is considered of Jewish or Hebrew ancestry considering it is a name in the book of Samuel.
Thank you, and Shalom!

Actually, Hannah (or Channah or Chanah, etc.) is a Hebrew name - but NOT a surname.

Jews used patronymics instead of surnames, so a name would look like Hannah bet Ibrahim (Hannah daughter of Abraham). And ALWAYS the person was the son or daughter of the FATHER, never the mother (though the Jewish identity is matriarchal - go figure).

So even if in the above you would consider bet Ibrahim (or just Ibrahim) to be a surname, that would never be Hannah as that is a female name.

But as far as a name it is definitely hebrew. Hannah was the mother of the prophet Samuel (from Torah - or Old Testament) and also is refered to many times in the Talmud.

not sure

Well, the name "Hannah" is certainly of Hebrew origin. It means grace or favor. It does *not* mean "grace of G-d"; that would be something like Hannael (Chanael in Hebrew).

Not according to www.ancestry.com
Hannah
Scottish, northern Irish, and English: variant spelling of Hanna.
hope this helps.

Yes, Hannah (pronounced 'clear throat sound' annah) is in fact a Jewish surname. I am quite sure it even appears in the Torah.

Hannah isn't normally a surname, but a given name.

It's a popular given name among jewish people, though. And it's increasingly popular as a given name among those of us who are goys.

The girl's name Hannah \ha(n)-nah\ is pronounced HAN-ah. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "favored grace". Biblical: mother of the prophet Samuel. Being barren, she asked God to bless her with a child, and her prayer was answered. Hence, the name literally means "God has graced me with a son". Ann, Anne, Anna, etc. are the European forms; Hanne is popular in Germany. Writer Hannah Arendt; sportscaster Hannah Storm.

Hannah has 24 variant forms: Ann, Anna, Anne, Annie, Chana, Chanah, Chanha, Channach, Channah, Hana, Hanah, Hanalee, Hanalise, Hanna, Hanne, Hannele, Hannelore, Hannie, Hanny, Honna, Nan, Nanney, Nannie and Nanny.

For more information, see also related names Aine, Alannah, Ioanna and Quiana.

Baby names that sound like Hannah are Hanyah, Haniah, Hannyah and Hanniah.

Hannah is a very popular female first name and a very popular surname (source: 1990 U.S. Census). Displayed below is the baby name popularity trend for the girl's name Hannah. Click here to compare Hannah with related baby names.

Its not a typical Jewish surname ... usually you can tell most Jewish surnames because they end in a -berg, -man, -thal, or -y. A couple examples .... Rosenberg, Gleeman, Blumenthal, Goldy, etc ... Then there is the veritable "Cohen" ... like the "Smith" of the Jewish world. However, just because you have one of these names doesn't mean your Jewish -- I've met people with very Jewish names that weren't even the least bit semitic.

In all honesty, if I met a person with the last name "Hannah" I really wouldn't even assume they were Jewish just from their name.

It is not a common Jewish surname. In fact, I don't think I have ever met a Jew with Hannah as surname, though I don't deny there might be some.

It is however a common Jewish first name.

I think many names in the U. S. that are considered Jewish is that the people with those surnames that immigrated here were Jewish but probably back in their home countries they were common among Jews and non Jews.

According to Orthodox and Conservative Judaism a person must have a Jewish mother, not necessarily a Jewish father, to be Jewish. They state you get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father. If a person doesn't have a Jewish father they belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on their mother's side of the family.

In other words a person could be named
MacIntosh and if they had a Jewish mother they would be Jewish according to Orthodox and Conservative Jews.

Well, here's a whole board at www.genealogy.com dedicated to the SURNAME Hannah.

http://genforum.genealogy.com/hannah/

When I placed the word "origin" in the search box (no quotes), I came up with the history of a family that actually came from Northern Ireland who had the Hannah surname. Another Hannah came from Scotland. It's possible the Clans have various Hannah surnames such as Hannay, Hannah, Hanna or Hanney. There's also a website for Clan Hannah http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~rhannah/

The given name Hannah (meaning gracious, full of grace, etc) could very well be Jewish or Hebrew as it's translated differently in each language.

Hannah is a very common name amongst Scottish immigrants to the US in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Lost among all the answers is the reality that surnames haven't "always" existed. They developed over time from things that were common in people's lives. The Bible was very common throughout Europe because it was the one thing that was a constant from town to town. Adopting a name from the Bible was not at all uncommon, regardless of ethnicity. That's why there are so many families named Matthew and Mathias out there. But that doesn't mean the families were ever Jewish, just that they adopted their names from a book written by Jews and about early Jewish civilization.

When in doubt, go to the source. There were 90 Scottish immigrants to the US through Ellis Island named Hannah and 125 through the Port of New York. Add in another 250 who came from Germany or France and used the spelling Hanna.

Jewish surnames were adopted the same way their Gentile neighbors adopted theirs. The only thing distinguishing a few, such as Goldman, is that in certain parts of Europe goldsmithing was a predominantly Jewish art...so most goldsmiths identifying with their trade were easily identified by their association with the precious metal. But there are few names outside the artisan trades which have an exclusively Jewish meaning or usage.

possibly the name was taken from the bible, many names that seem jewish are not.
http://www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&...