Double Names
Slide 16 of 94
Slide 16

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This first type of “name relationship” is no relationship at all.  Some people have unrelated double names — two names that have nothing to do with each other, for example “Sura Rivka” or “Dovid Hirsh”.  The two names could reflect memorialization of two different deceased relatives, for example a “Sholem Wulf” named after his two grandfathers, “Sholem” and “Wolf”.

Any given document might show one name, the other name, or both names, in either order, as illustrated above.  One document might refer to this person as “Moshe”, while another says “Abram Moshe”, and a third says “Moshe Abram”.  They're all the same person.  The principle to remember is that the pattern of recording names was completely inconsistent.  You must be alert to research under all possibilities.