Find out how popular the last name Shoshani is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Shoshani.

Shoshani, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Shoshani surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Shoshani in America

Shoshani is the 126765th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Shoshani surname appeared 135 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Shoshani.

The history of the last name Shoshani

The surname Shoshani is of Hebrew origin and is derived from the biblical name Shoshan, which means "rose" or "lily." It is a common surname among Jewish communities, particularly those of Sephardic descent.

The name Shoshani is believed to have originated in the Middle East, specifically in areas where Jewish communities have historically resided, such as the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Iberian Peninsula. It is likely that the name was adopted as a surname during the Middle Ages, when Jewish communities began using hereditary surnames.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Shoshani can be found in the Cairo Geniza, a vast collection of Jewish manuscripts and documents discovered in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, Egypt. These manuscripts date back to the 11th and 12th centuries.

In the 14th century, the name Shoshani appeared in the Responsa literature, a collection of rabbinical legal decisions and opinions. One notable individual mentioned in these works was Rabbi Yom Tov Shoshani, a respected scholar and legal authority who lived in the 14th century.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the surname Shoshani was found in various regions of the Ottoman Empire, where Sephardic Jewish communities had settled after their expulsion from Spain and Portugal. One prominent figure from this period was Rabbi Shlomo Shoshani, a renowned scholar and kabbalist who lived in the city of Safed, in present-day Israel.

In the 17th century, the name Shoshani appeared in the records of the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, which had become a center of Sephardic Jewish life after the Inquisition in Portugal and Spain.

Another notable individual with the surname Shoshani was Rabbi Shalom Shoshani, a prominent 18th-century scholar from Jerusalem. He authored several works on Jewish law and tradition.

In the 19th century, the name Shoshani was found among Jewish communities in various parts of the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran, and Egypt. One notable figure from this period was Rabbi Yehuda Shoshani, a respected leader of the Jewish community in Baghdad, who lived in the late 19th century.

Throughout history, the surname Shoshani has been associated with scholars, rabbis, and leaders within the Jewish community, reflecting the cultural and religious significance of the name's origins.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Shoshani

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Shoshani.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Shoshani was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Shoshani was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Shoshani, please contact us.

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