Is my last name Jewish?

My last name is Leyva and for some reason people seem to think it's Jewish. My family also receives news letters from a Jewish church..


what's the deal?

Is my last name Jewish?
Odd question, but, there could be Jewish people with your last name, sure. My last name is common among Jews as well, but my family name has been changed a couple times over the years and we're all Protestant.





From what I understand, many Jewish people in Eastern Europe adopted last names that are common in the region they migrated to many generations ago. I can't really remember the reason for this.
Reply:Any name can be Jewish. A lot of names in the U.S. are identified as Jewish as a large portion of immigrants to this country had certain names while back in their country of origin the same name was used by Jew and non Jews alike. Names ending in "stein" "berg" "burg" "ski" "sky" etc are not necessarily Jewish.





Also Jews do not agree on what a Jew is.





Reform Jews define a Jew by the religion alone.





Orthodox and Conservative Judaism defines a Jew by the mother alone, not the father or the religion. They state they get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father. An Orthodox Jew will tell you if a person has a Jewish mother and they renounce their Jewish faith, they are still a Jew. Whereas if they only have a Jewish father, not a Jewish mother, the only way they can be a Jew is to convert to Judaism.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_J...
Reply:Apparently its Spanish or French. Do a quick google search. In order to find this out for sure is to figure out where your grandparents came from and possibly their parents. From this you need to rationalize the Jewish population from that area in the time period.
Reply:Actually the Name Leyva originated in Spain in the Castile area or in Northern Spain. If your family receives a newsletter from a Synagogue


you might want to as your parents about it.
Reply:Most of the immigrants to the US in the early 1900's with the last name of Leyva were from Columbia or Latin American. However, Leyva is a Sephardic Jewish name.





go to the following website: www.sephardim.com
Reply:Whether it is Jewish or not depends on your ancestry, but in all likelihood, it is Spanish. Derived from Leiva, it is a surname that originated in a town of the same name somewhere in Castille (Northern Spain).
Reply:Maybe Serbo-Croatian? Maybe try researching your genealogy to find out about your heritage. In the meantime, don't worry about it. I've seen much worse. My first name is from the Yiddish, and I have lots of fun joking about it.
Reply:No it is not Jewish. I have a friend who is of jewish descent and she says it is not. Sounds like it is from Spain.
Reply:http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx...





I do believe it originated in spain
Reply:http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx...





It says it is Spanish.
Reply:Usualy, jewish last names sound more like.


Goldstein, Goldsburg...





So, no your last name dosnt sound jewish.
Reply:kind of, do u have something against jew? what? do you? do you, wow RACES
Reply:You must be Jewish Sherlock.
Reply:Leyva sounds very Eastern European to me.
Reply:extremely.
Reply:No theres no such thing as a "jewish" name. they're just sterotypes.
Reply:Oh you betcha it is.
Reply:your last name has a jewish decent. In other words, your last name is jewish
Reply:i had a jewish teacher and his last name was levon
Reply:sounds jewish to me
Reply:nope not jewish
Reply:Sounds more Scandinavian, but what the hell do I know, eh?
Reply:it's not jewish, it's perfectly normal, sounds arabic =)








EDIT: Ignore the ignorant predg's that say it is...
Reply:sounds Swedish
Reply:no =) im not sure what it is though it's not Jewish I don't think


%26lt;3aj
Reply:no idea
Reply:yeah
Reply:And no its not jewish......





i wish iad that last name everybody keeps on pronouncing mine wrong....
Reply:not really, it doesn't end with a stein
Reply:Ask your grandparents how the concentration camps were.
Reply:just walk around doing the hitler walk and wave