Of Bug Crushers and Barbaric Clerks: The Fabricated History of Jewish Family Names in Karl Emil Franzos’ ‘Namensstudien’ (1880)

Abstract

This article analyses the 1880 essay ‘Namensstudien’ by Austrian writer Karl Emil Franzos, which significantly shaped established knowledge of Jewish family names and their alleged origins. Although Franzos’ claims have been questioned since their publication, his essay—including two later versions from 1888 and 1897—is still widely referenced in studies on the history of Jewish family names. Based on a thorough historical examination, this article demonstrates that Franzos’ text is an example of literary, fabricated history and should thus not be mistaken for a historiographical reference work on the adoption of family names by Jews in the eighteenth century.