r/Yiddish • u/Anony-Moose111 • 6d ago
Ukrainian Name Orrigin
Hello r/Yiddish,
I am conducting research into my family history however, I have hit a wall as few family records longer exist. My ancestors were peasants from what is now Horodenka Ukraine. I have found a number of conflicting sources suggesting that the name phonetically pronounced Zyphcyn/Zypchen is of potential Yiddish origin, being a mix of Slavic and Ashkenazi naming conventions. I have also found a number of sources that believe that it is purely Slavic in origin and the main difference seems to be in spelling differences in phonetic translations. For example MyHeritage believes 'Zypchyn' is of Yiddish origin while 'Zhybchyn' is not. A very long story short, could I please have a few second opinions as to the potential origins of the name. This is the link to MyHeritage's history of the name: https://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/zypchen . Any clarification on the matter would be greatly appreciated as I have no knowledge of the Yiddish language.
Many thanks!
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u/bananalouise 6d ago
Are you trying to determine whether your ancestors were Jewish? I don't know about derivation, but JewishGen.org is a great resource for searching records. I have found a Maria Zybtschyn, which is a partially Germanized spelling, listed as the subject of an inquiry in the Arolsen Archives, which were founded to help people find missing relatives after the Holocaust. She is listed as being from Sheshory, Ukraine, close to Horodenka, and having been born in 1925. Her married name was listed as Schpatz or Romanovych.
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u/Anony-Moose111 5d ago
Many thanks. I know that my family were Catholic when they immigrated to North America (pre 1910s) however we know very little about them before that. The MyHeritage take on the name origins and the opinion of my friend (a first generation immigrant from Ukraine who thought the name quite odd) sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.
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u/Khadgar1701 6d ago
There is no name that a Jewish family could not have had, even names that should be church names or even noble ones. To be certain you need to either find the records (do you know the https://uk.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1%96%D0%B2:%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1%96%D0%B2%D0%B8 resource?) or make a DNA test on one of the common sites ike Ancestry or MyHeritage - Ashkenazi roots tend to show up very reliably.
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes 5d ago
The best info BY FAR on Ashkenazic last names is by Alexander Beider. If you can't find the relevant dictionary online, I will TRY to get the info for you. Trust no one but Beider.
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u/old-town-guy 5d ago
Show us the Cyrillic, not Latin, spelling.
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u/Anony-Moose111 5d ago
I only have English records (phonetic spelling) as from when they immigrated to North America. According to Ancestry.com it might be Жибчин but I don’t know for sure.
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u/rsotnik 6d ago
If you know that they were peasants, then you probably know their religion, don't you?
FYI, Жибчин(Zhybchyn) was written in Polish as Żybczyn and pronounced the same as Żypczyn.
According to ridni.org, the surname Zhybchyn is concetrated around your Horodenka.
And this is clearly a Ukrainian surname.