RUSSIAN-SURNAMES-L Archives

From: "William F. Hoffman" <>
Subject: [RUSSIAN-SURNAMES] Re: Kumpakiskis, Rassner
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 10:46:16 -0500
References: <200205250907.g4P97q219556@lists2.rootsweb.com>

Pat <> wrote:

> William, what do you think of the following Kumpakiske names on my site?
> Our family has only quessed at the surname spellings.
> Kumpakiske Schultz Page
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kumpakiskeschultz/

The name KUMPAKISKE is probably a form of the Lithuanian surname
KUMPAKIS^KIS, using S^ to stand for the S with a little "birdy" or v-like
mark over it. That letter is pronounced like our "sh," so that KUMPAKIS^KIS
would sound very roughly like "koom-pah-KISH-kiss." The forms ending -aite
and -iene are just variations of this name, used to indicate married and
unmarried females, respectively; for our purposes we would ignore them and
concentrate on Kumpakis^kis.

A 2-volume set published in Vilnius in the 80s, entitled _Lietuviu pavardziu
zodynas_ [Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames], ed. A. Vanagas, lists
Kumpakis^kis, saying it is obviously a nickname, from the Lithuanian term
_kumpakis^kis_. It says that term means the same as _kumpakojis_.
Unfortunately my Lithuanian dictionaries don't mention either word, so I'm
not sure what the name means. I will say that _kumpakojis_ APPEARS to be a
combination of _kumpas_, "bent, hooked, curved" + the noun _kojis_, "leg,"
so perhaps the name means "one with curved leg," perhaps something along the
lines of "bow-legged," or "crippled." But I must emphasize that that is just
my guess, and could be dead wrong. Maybe you could post to one of the
Lithuanian mailing lists and get info from someone who's fluent in
Lithuanian.

The compilers of the LPZ searched in phone directories and other sources to
note where individual names were found and how common they were. They only
show a single entry for Kumpakis^kis, saying it was in the district of
Bartninkai, near Vilkavis^kis. So it's not a common name, and the only place
they found it was near Bartninkai. But to the best of my knowledge, they
didn't have access to comprehensive data, so it's hard to say much more for
sure.

I don't have access to further details. However, there is an online
Lithuanian telephone directory at:

http://telefonai.takas.lt/simple_search.asp

I tried searching for Kumpakis^kis, using the correct spelling, and got
nothing; I also tried searching for Kumpa and then worked my way down the
list, and no one appeared with a name beginning Kumpak-. So the name may
have died out in Lithuania. But you might want to try searching for
yourself -- maybe you'll think of something I overlooked.

As for Meje/Mie/Mey/Meja, that's a tough one. The only thing I could find in
LPZ that might fit is MEJYS or MEJUS, variants of the same basic name, which
Vanagas said is a Lithuanian adaptation of the German surname MAY or MAYE
(which my German sources say comes from the name of the month of May). MEJYS
was found in the district of S^ilute, and MEJUS in Jurbarkas district. Since
Germans live all over Eastern Europe, it's not unusual to find people in
Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, etc. bearing names ultimately of German
linguistic origin. My best guess is that this is a similar case.

The TAKAS phone directory listed 5 people named Mejus. Whether any of these
are related to you is more than I can say. But it's something you might want
to follow up. If you need more ideas, as I say, try posting on one of the
Lithuanian genealogy mailing lists, and I think you'll get some good advice.

Also, Muriel Schloss <> wrote:

> I've been searching for a clue about the birthplace of my maternal
> grandfather, Jacob Rassner, for close to 10 years!
> When I read Wm. Hoffman's extensive answer re surnames it gave me the
> courage to ask him and/or others what they make of the names attributed to
> Jacob.
> Jacob Rassner was listed as Jeoh...el Rasner on the Ellis Island website,
> Yechel ben Yekesiel on his headstone, and whose Father's name is listed as
> Kishe Rassner on Jacob's death certificate.
> I'll appreciate any light anyone can shed on my dilemma Thank you!!!

What you really need is a short course on Jewish names. I can't give that
here, but I can give you a Website that has good info on this subject:

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames/search.htm

RASNER and RASSNER are variants of the same name, and it's not likely the
name itself will offer any useful clues as to where the family came from.
Surnames seldom do provide useful leads in that regard. Yekesiel is probably
a variant of the Hebrew first name generally rendered in English as Yequtiel
or Yequsiel, found in the Bible at 1 Chron. 4:18. It means "one who harkens
to the Lord." Yechel is a varient of another Hebrew name, Yehiel or Jehiel,
"God lives," the name of several figures in the Old Testament.

I haven't run into Kishe before, but it's probably a secular name or
nickname from Yekesiel. Jewish males went by two names: 1) a "sacred name,"
generally of Hebrew origin, by which he was called to read from the Torah
during services, and 2) a secular name, for everyday use, which could be a
short form of a sacred name, or could be a nickname of Slavic or Germanic or
other origin. Thus your ancestor Jacob's secular name was apparently Jacob
(which can be a sacred name as well, in its Hebrew form, Yaakov), and it
appears his "sacred" name was Yechel or Yehiel. His father's sacred name was
Yekesiel, but he went by Kishe in everyday life. I may be wrong, but that's
how I read this data.

This is all perfectly normal for Ashkenazic Jews, as you can learn by
reading some of the info given at the site mentioned above. Jewish names are
a fascinating topic, but one that can get pretty complex and baffling to one
unfamiliar with them!

You might want to try searching for RASSNER in Avotaynu's Consolidated
Jewish Surname Index [CJSI], a database of some 370,000 surnames, mostly
Jewish, found in 31 different databases. The surnames are presented in
Soundex order; for each surname, it identifies in which of the databases the
name can be found, with a link to additional information about each
database. CJSI is located at:

http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html

One of the sources cited there, Alexander Beider's _Dictionary of Jewish
Surnames from the Russian Empire_, lists Rasner as found in the provinces of
Odessa, Taurida, and Poltava. He says the name refers to a place with which
the family was associated at some point -- they lived there, went there
often on business, or had some other kind of connection with it. It can
refer to the village of Rasno (Zhitomir district) or to the townlet Ryasna
(Chaussy and Brest district). It would be a long shot that this info would
prove useful to you, but I mention it because, after all, you never know!

Incidentally, do you notice that in all this long note about "Russian names"
there isn't a single Russian name involved? These names are of Lithuanian
and Germanic or Yiddish origin. Russia was (and is) a big, big place, and
the Russian Empire included jillions of people who weren't ethnic Russians.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your research!

William F. "Fred" Hoffman
Author, _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_

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• [RUSSIAN-SURNAMES] Re: Kumpakiskis, Rassner by "William F. Hoffman" <>