Talk:Mandelstam

Isn't Mandelshtam a Yiddish (Jewish) surname? I think that usually a surname is defined as being related to a language/nation by its origin, not by the number of well-known people with that surname. And Mandelshtam is definitely not of Russian origin. People bearing it may well be Russians, Belarussians, South Africans or Americans, but it doesn't make the surname to be any of that. Tomatensaft (talk) 11:12, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agree : "Most Russian family names originated from patronymics, that is, father's name usually formed by adding the adjective suffix -ov(a) or -ev(a))." (1). Q/0/k 01:53, 18 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]