Jewish Surnames

You may enjoy this article about the origins of Jewish surnames. Some of it is pretty technical, but it gets more interesting towards the end. For example, "Some names allude to professions that are exclusive to Jews. One such name appears in various forms: Kister, Klausner, Templer, Schuldiner, and Shamash, all of them meaning shamash, a synagogue sexton. Likewise, we have names such as Kantor, Singer, Schulsinger (which may have morphed into Schlesinger), Chazanov, Chazantzik, Chazanovski, Chazanian, Chazanski, all of them meaning chazan, a cantor."