SEARCH THE GIVEN NAMES DATA BASES (GNDBs)

The seventeen European GNDBs which you can search using the input form below contain sets of the Primary and Subsidiary names ("Old" - mostly Yiddish, and "New" - mainly Yiddishized German names) authorized by the rabbis to be written in a Get.  They also contain the OTHER names which cannot be written in a Get (e.g., diminutives, and names of endearment).  In addition to searching for names in any of these three categories, you can also search for the vernacular names adopted by European emigrants who moved to foreign countries.

The search input form allows you to use either of the two different search directions (but don't try to fill in both red and blue data!):

1.  European-to-Foreign:  Enter your ancestor's given name(s) for his European country of origin, and obtain all the possible European Hebrew, Yiddish, & Secular names he could have used there, plus the foreign-country vernacular names he might have adopted abroad.

2.  Foreign-to-European:  Enter your ancestor's vernacular given name(s) in his foreign-country of immigration, and obtain all the possible foreign-country vernacular given names he might also have adopted there, plus the European given names he might have used in his former European country of origin.

SUMMARY OF SEARCH OPTIONS -- SOME NAMES TO PRACTICE ON

Try out these search options yourself until you feel confident that you can use them for your own searches, and then use them as guidelines for setting up your own searches:

Now practice searching for the following examples of popular German secular names as used by Jews in Germany and in most other European countries prior to the 20th century;  this will allow you to see some of these names' variant forms.  You will also be able to observe their local "name equivalents" in European countries other than Germany.  (Legal NEW secular names are in all-caps, while non-legal secular names are in caps and lowercase):

GIVEN NAMES SEARCH FORM