Other Sephardic names such as Benzaquen, Ben-Ezra and Ohana were of Hebrew or Arabic derivation. Toledano (Toledo), Soriano (Soria) and Romano (Rome) are just a few examples. Sephardic surnames often denote places of origin and were directly related to geographical locations either before or after the expulsion in 1492 or were acquired during the forced wanderings caused by the exile. Most of the names listed below can be found among Inquisitional manuscripts, Church registrars, notarial archives and other ancestral records that go back for centuries in both the Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms. Many also fled to Gibraltar and North Africa because of its proximity to the Iberian Peninsula while others were able to flee to Israel or the New World. Salonica, Morocco, Izmir, Istanbul, Holland and The Island of Rhodes are only some of the places where thriving Sephardic communities were established. Those that left Spain or escaped from Portugal were widely dispersed throughout the Ottoman Empire, Italy and South-Eastern Europe where they either joined existing Jewish communities or established new ones. Many fled to Portugal as refugees but were forcibly converted only five years later. However, in 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree ordering all Jews living in Spain to leave the country by July 31 – the day of Tisha B’Av. Prior to the 1492 expulsion Spain was a golden era for Jews. For instance, the Italian surname of Montefiore is identical in meaning to the German surname Bloomberg, both of which mean ‘mountain of flowers’. Although Sephardi and Ashkenazi names are distinctly different, many times they mean the same thing. Whereas Ashkenazi surnames did not become common until the 18th century, Spanish Jews have used family names since medieval times and are used by their descendants to this very day. Some of the most famous names of the Sephardic community can be traced back to medieval times.
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