POMERANTZ NAME ORIGINS

 

POMERANTZ - bitter orange

 

Pomeranc: A German surname common in Pruzhany, Pinsk, Brest & Kobrin

Per A DICTIONARY OF JEWISH NAMES AND THEIR HISTORY by BenZion C. Kaganoff (New York, 1977):

"When Jewish families adopted surnames they took them from a variety of sources - occupations, geographical locations, physical or personal characteristics, nicknames, abbreviations, or first names of a father or mother (like Davidson, from David).

In the late 1700's and early 1800's most European Jews were required by law to take surnames. Previously, most Jews followed the custom of using only a given name and the patronymic (Joseph, son of Abraham). Prussia issued an edict requiring permanent family names be adopted by mid-1813. It was extended to all Prussian states by 1845. When required to do so, many Jews choose surnames from localities or vocations and many of those names were cleverly disguised to conform to specific regulations of what names were permissible."

OTHER NAME ORIGIN COMMENTS:

1. German: metonymic occupational name for an importer or seller of bitter ( Seville ) oranges, Middle High German pomeranz (medieval Latin pomarancia, composed of the elements arancia, the name imported with the fruit. Compare Naranjo, with the explanatory Latin word pomum ‘apple’, ‘fruit’).

2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Yiddish pomerants ‘orange’ (German Pomeranze), one of the many ornamental names taken from plants.