Follow
BELKIND, BELKIN Many Jewish family names are derived from nicknames. Literally "beautiful child" in Yiddish, Belkind belongs to the large group of surnames based on the female given name Bella. Belkin is a variant of Belkind. The feminine for "beautiful" in Spanish and Italian, Bella is a translation of the Hebrew Yaffa. Like its French equivalent, Belle, it is the source of many given names, from which several hereditary family names were developed. Bella is documented in 1140 at Koeln (Cologne) in Germany and recorded in 1294 in Savoy with "Bella Judea" (Bella the Jewess). The compound Belleassez (in French "quite beautiful") is found some one hundred years before at Troyes (France) and Bele, Belete and Beleite are recorded in the late 13th century in Paris. In Yiddish, Bella became Beile/Bayla, while several variants were current in 18th-century Alsace, among them Beylin, spelled Beilin in 19th-century Russia and England, some of which formed matronymics (indicating descent in the female line) such as Beilinson in eastern Europe. Closely related to this group are the Iberian Belinfante (beautiful child) and Schoenkind, the German equivalent of Belkind, as well as Belmonte (beautiful mountain), current in Spain and Portugal, which Marrano families made famous in the Balkans, Turkey, Holland and England. Distinguished bearers of the surname Belkind include members of the white-Russian Belkind family which came to Eretz Israel on the first Aliyah. Its founder was Meir Belkind (1827-1898), one of the first teachers of the modern Hebrew school system in Eretz Israel; Israel Belkind (1861-1929), one of the founders of the “Bilu” Zionist movement; and Naaman Belkind (1889-1917), member of the Eretz Israeli “Nili” underground, who was hanged by the Turkish authorities in 1917. Prominent bearers of the family names Belkin include the 20th-century American Rabbi, educator and scholar, Samuel Belkin. © BETH HATEFUTSOTH - FAMILY NAMES AND COUNITIES DATABASE