Follow
- Blejer is the Spanish form of the Yiddish name "Blecher" which means "tin smith". The letter "j" in Spanish is similar to "ch" in Yiddish.
- Variants in Argentina families are: Blejer, Bleger, and Blecher.
- When surnames were adopted in the late 18th and early 20th century in Eastern Europe, it was the practice among Jews to assume a surname either of the town or region from which they stemmed, or of the trade with which they made a livelihood. The fact that names such as Gold, Goldsmith, Goldberg, Goldstein, Goldman, and Silver, Silverstein, Silversmith, became generically Jewish names and remain so to the present day bespeaks the seminal role of Jewish artisans in these trades through the centuries. In Italian a typical Jewish family name, Orrefici, translates to goldworker.
- Ferro, Ferrere, Ferriere Hierierro, Eisen, Eisenstein were likewise distinctly Jewish surnames that identified Jews as iron-smiths who carried on their trade in an Italian French, Italian, Spanish or German environment through the ages. Similarly the names Blecher (Yiddish, "tin-worker") and Klempner (German, "[metal]-folder") are recognizable Jewish names that translate literally to tinsmith. The names Messing (brass-worker) and Prager (minter) likewise derive from the German, and remained characteristically Jewish names for centuries.
- Note [Hatte Blejer] My source is not the best one for Yiddish names, but I found the listing of the various names interesting.