The name is said to be derived from
Hebrewsegan leviyyah (assistant to the
Levites)[1][2][3] although a minority of sources claim that "Segal" is instead a Hebrew abbreviation for segan le-kehunah (assistant to the
Cohen – assistant to the priest).[4][5]
People
Notable people with the surname include:
Abe Segal (1930–2016), South African tennis player
Alan F. Segal (1945–2011), American Professor of Jewish Studies
Allan Segal (1941–2012), British documentary filmmaker
Alvin Segal (born 1933), American-Canadian businessman and philanthropist
Anna Segal (born 1986), Australian Olympic freestyle skier and 2-time world champion
Anthony Segal (born 1944), British physician/scientist
Brandon Segal (born 1983), Canadian ice hockey player
Charles Segal (1936–2002), American historian and classicist
^The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion ed. Adele Berlin - 2011-p3 "Various family names are derived from abbreviations; for example, Katz (kohen tsedeq [righteous priest]) and Segal (segan leviyyah [Levitical aide]). Abbreviations or acronyms were commonly employed in Talmudic literature as an exegetical ..."
^Jewish Budapest: Monuments, Rites, History ed. Kinga Frojimovics, Géza Komoróczy - 1999 p190 "Siegel / Segal / Segall / Chagall, etc.: segan levayya, leader of the Levites (sagan is a loanword from Ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian and Akkadian, originally denoting a dignity).
^Ladies' Home Journal Vol.90 page liii ed. Newell Convers Wyeth - 1973 "Thus levi Segal is a descendents of Ben Rabbi Judah Lowe became Brill; Segan Leviyyah became the surname Segal or Segel."
^Precious possessions: treasures from the Library of the Sharon Liberman Mintz, Elka Deitsch, Havva Charm - 2001 p38 "... pouring water from a pitcher into a laver. This illustration is a visual reference to the Levitical ancestry of the family of the bridegroom whose surname (Segal) is a standard Hebrew abbreviation for segan le-kehunah (assistant to the priest)."
^Sidney Steiman, Custom And Survival, A Study Of The Life Of Rabbi Jacob Molin, the Maharil, 1963, p.4
Surname list
This page lists people with the
surnameSegal. If an
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