Bloch
A surname that can come from the German word for a block or log, and in some Jewish contexts from an East/Central European ethnonym for a Wallachian or Romanian.
The #6,965 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,095 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name has more than one likely source. In German, Bloch is connected with the word for a block or log, and older surname dictionaries treat it as a nickname based on that sense. In Jewish usage, some 19th-century scholars also linked Bloch to Yiddish forms related to Wallachian or Romanian identity, ultimately from a word for a person from Wallachia. Because these explanations apply to different families, the surname is best treated as having multiple independent origins.
History
Bloch is found in German-speaking areas and in Jewish families across Central and Eastern Europe. French surname writers also noted forms such as Block as related spellings or nearby variants. In modern usage it appears in both Ashkenazi Jewish and non-Jewish German-language lineages, so ancestry alone does not determine which etymology fits a particular family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older writers thought the Jewish surname Bloch was ultimately tied to the way Yiddish speakers pronounced a word for a Wallachian or Romanian neighbor.
From the historical record
“' O.H.Ger. marka] BLOCH (Ger.) Block (nickname) [M.H.Ger. ' btoch. O.H.Ger. 6/oA(A] BLONDEAU ] (fr.) Fair, LfeHT-CoMPLEX- BLONDEL lONED [see Blond in Diet., and BLONDET J -I- the Fr. dim. suffs. -eau, for / earlier -el, and -et] BLUM (Ger.) Bloom, Flower [Ger. blume,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Bloch
- Felix Bloch (1905–1983)
- Marc Bloch (1886–1944)
- Ernst Bloch (1885–1977)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.