IS Shapiro an Arab name?

Question

IS Shapiro an Arab name?

Answer 1

All i know is Alkedah is Taliban.

Answer 2

It is if the person using the name is an Arab. Names move around, so the name is whatever ethnicity the person using it holds. It could have been 20 generations ago that a Sephardic Jew went to Germany and adopted the name Shapiro. Then his son (19 generations ago) went to Lebanon on a quest of his own and married an Arabic woman and lived in an Arabic world. Since he didn't have to become Muslim to be Arabic (as evidenced by the millions of Arab Christians), he could have become the ancestor of more than a million descendents, all of whom are every bit as Arabic as their neighbors.

Don't be deceived by the "name sources". They give generalities that history doesn't hold to be absolutes. If a family is Arabic and has the name Shapiro, then it is indeed an "Arab name".

Answer 3

Not at all.

Answer 4

Shapiro is a Yiddish surname which occasionally is said to be derived from the medieval name of Speyer, Germany. However, the word Shapiro is Aramaic (probably derived from the hebrew word sapir (ספיר), usually translated as "sapphire" but which refers not to the sapphire gemstone but to the lapis lazuli and reputed to be the stone which represented the tribe of Issachar on the breastplate of the high priest of Israel and thus identifying the Shapiro family with that tribe)

Answer 5

I found this for you .

Surname: Shapiro

Recorded in many forms including Sapir, Saphir, Saphire, Saphyr, Schapera, Shapera, Shapero, Shapiro, Spier, and Spire, this is a surname of English, German, and Askenasic origins, of which there are at least three. However it has to said that there is no wholly safisfactory explanation for the origins of all the spellings. The first possible origin is locational from the German town of Speyer in Bavaria, a name which is supposed to describe a river lock or weir. From this region the original coat of arms has the blazon of silver field, charged with a red fesse or sword belt, and in chief a crescent. This would suggest that the holder was a Knight Templar or crusader who achieved victory over the Muslim Turks. The second possible exlanation is that the name derives from the Hebrew word 'sapir' meaning a sapphire jewel, and hence is an ornamental name perhaps for a jeweller, whilst in England it could be from either of the above or even from the word 'spir' meaning a spike or tower. What is certain is that the name is a very early entry onto the surnames list with Heinrich Saphir being recorded in Koln (Cologne) in the year 1172. In England whilst Spire is a very early recording, that of Shapiro is Victorian with Francis Shapiro, the son of A. W. Shapiro being baptised in London in 1878. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Shapiro is an Ashkenazi Jewish name with Yiddish/German orgins, you could probably trace it back to Hebrew somehow, but it's not Arabic.

Answer 7

No, not especially. But it may be of Persian origin.

Answer 8

Pay close attention to what Genievieve's mom says.

To help you think this concept through... the NAME Caldwell would be considered an Irish name.  It is also a name of many African Americans, who have no Irish ancestry at all.  Persons named Lee can be English, or they can be Chinese.

It does not matter where a name "comes" from.  It is completely independent of where a PERSON might come from.  A person named Shapiro can have Arab ancestry, although that would not be the origin of the name itself.  

Answer 9

Remember Helen Shapiro the singer with the deep voice ( " Walking back to happiness " ) She was if I remember Jewish from London .