Re: Yiddish on List

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

Alana,
        Jacobowitz's derivation of the name "Suskin" is probably correct.
However, even if you
are right that it's a matronymic like such names as "Sorkin", "Belkin",
"Frumkin" and so on, I'm amazed to hear you describe this as a "Russian"
name. These matronymics are purely Yiddish. They all consist of a 
Yiddish woman's first name and the suffix -kin (from Yiddish "kind,"
child. 
        This morphology is completely undrelated to Russian surnames
like "Bordoin(sorry, Borodin), Bulganin, Tcherpnin (sorry, Tcherepnin)
and so on, where the suffix is -in.
        Furthermore, the prevalence of Yiddish matronymics has absolutely
nothing to do with Jewish marriages not being recognized by the church.
They are vernacular Yiddish matronyms originally used to differentiate
specific individuals. 
Itzik-Leyb