Is the surename "Kochendorfer" a German-Jewish name?

My grandmother has that name in her family tree, and when she met some folks from Germany many years back and told them about her German ancestry, they said that Kochendorfer sounded "Jewish". Is this true?

Is the surename "Kochendorfer" a German-Jewish name?
It's German, but it can be Jewish. Any name can be a Jewish name. There are very very few exclusively Jewish names. Many names in the U.S. are viewed as Jewish as a large portion of immigrants to the U.S. had those names while back in their country of origin, the same name was used by Jews and non Jews. When surnames were taken in the last millenium, Jew took names just like Christians, based on being the son of someone, their occupation, where they lived, or some characteristic about them. It wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to have a different surname and still each could have shared their surname with others unrelated. Some will say we are all related if we go back far enough. However,the root person of your surname will not necessarily be the root person of someone else with your surname.





People who told your grandmother that probably new someone named Kochendorfer who was Jewish.





Also understand that Jews do not agree on the definition of a Jew.





Reform Jews define a Jew by the religious faith alone.





Orthodox and Conservative Judaism defines a Jew by the mother, not the father or necessarily the religion. An Orthodox Jew will tell you that a person is still a Jew if they have a Jewish mother even though they no longer consider themselves part of the Jewish faith.





At the same time if they only have a Jewish father, not a Jewish mother, Orthodox and Conservative Judaism will tell you the only way they can be Jewish is to convert.





So your name could be McGillicuddy and you can be Jewish.





Names with "stein" "stine" "stern" "berg" "burg"


ending in "er" "ski" "sky" are not necessarily of themselves Jewish names.





Here is what Ancestry.Com says about Kochendorfer





German: habitational name for someone from any of several places called Kochendorf, in W眉rttemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Bohemia.
Reply:It just means they're bakers from town. It's no different than John Denver's real name being Deutschendorf. Names don't have religious connotations unless they're taken directly from religious practices. Kantor is a truly Jewish name. Christian/Christopher/Krzyz are pretty common Christian names. But occupations that crossed religious boundaries are ambiguous and don't belong uniquely to one group or another.
Reply:Kocher is a river in Germany and Kochendorf could be a village at this river. And everyboby from Kochendorf is a Kochendorfer.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Friedri...





There was a synagogue in Kochendorf/Bad Friedrichshall until 1925.
Reply:yeah it's german