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FRANK Origin of surname

FRANK

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

The Franks were a group of Germanic tribes living between the river Main and the North Sea, whom the Romans called Franci/Francos in the 3rd century CE. Franconia, first used in a Latin charter of 1053, Francia, France and Franken were names applied to a portion of the land occupied by the Franks which became one of the stem-duchies of medieval Germany. The present name of France in German, Frankreich, that is "empire of the Franks", has its origins in the establishment of the Frankish monarchy in Gaul by Clovis in the 5th century, and the eventual transformation of the Regnorum Francorum Occidentalium ("the western kingdom of the Franks"), as defined by the treaty of Verdun (843), into the heartland of the modern French state. Jews lived on the territory of France since the 4th century. Franco means "free/generous" in Spanish. In Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), it is the equivalent of the Arabic Franji/Ifranji, that is "Franks". Since the 12th century, these three terms were used in the east Mediterranean Muslim countries to designate all Europeans. In the 16th and subsequent centuries, the word Franco is found in Sephardi rabbinic literature as a name for European Ashkenazi Jews. In Eastern Europe, it first came to mean a Jew who was a Turkish subject, and then a Sephardi Ladino-speaking Jew. The family name Frank may also me associated with places such as Frankenberg and Frankenau in Hesse, Germany, Frankenburg in upper Austria, Frankenstein (Zabkowice) in Poland, and others. During the Inquisition in Spain, the members of a pre-15th century Spanish Franco family moved to Amsterdam, Venice, Tunis, Crete and London. The name is documented in Salonika (Greece) in 1492 and Bordeaux (France) in 1528. The Italian Franchi, as well as the German Frank and Frankel, are found in the 16th century. Franks, Franck, Franke, Frankenburger and Fraenkel are recorded in the 17th century, Franc and Franklin in the 18th, and Franchetti in the 19th century. The Jewish family name Frank probably originated in the central Rhineland area (western Germany). It is documented in the early 16th century with the Polish Rabbi Menachem Mendel Frank.

Distinguished bearers of this name include Jakob Ben Jehuda Loeb Frank (1726-1791), also known as 'Santo Senor' ("the sacred master"), who was the Polish founder of the Frankist sect which succeeded the Shabbatean Messianic movement; the German chemist Adolph Frank (1834-1916), whose work laid the foundations of Germany's Kali industry; and the German teacher and cantor, Rafael Frank (1867-1920), who invented the modern Frank-Ruehl Hebrew printed letters.

Jacob Frank (1726-1791), pseudo-messiah, born in Korolowka, Podolia, he was a trader who, while in Turkey, came into contact with the group that continued to believe in the messiahship of Shabbetai Tsevi. He began to study the Zohar and came to believe he was the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tsevi and developed a theology with a trinitarian basis (God, the Messiah, and the Shekhina - a female hypostasis of God). He acquired a following in eastern Europe and was excommunicated by the rabbis in 1756. The rabbis denounced the group to the Catholic authorities but Frank put himself under the protection of the bishop of Kaminiec-Podolski who ordered a public disputation. The Frankists accepted Christianity and Frank was baptized in Warsaw cathedral with the king as his godfather. However the Church grew suspicious and he was exiled for 13 years to the fortress of Czestochowa. On his release he moved to Bruenn and then to Offenbach where the sect was reestablished under the 'Holy Lord;' who now called himself Baron von Frank. After his death the sect continued to exist in Offenbach under Frank's daughter, Eve, as ' queen' and 'high priestess' practicing secret rites including ritual orgies. Eventually it disintegrated.

Anne (Annelies Marie) Frank (1929-1945), author, born in  Frankfurt on Main, Germany. She was taken with her family to Amsterdam after the Nazis seized power in 1933. After Holland was invaded in 1940, her father prepared for the eventuality of hiding and in July 1942 the family and a few friends moved into the attic of the vacant annex of her father's business premises where they were hidden by four of her father's employees. For the next two years they remained in the attic and Anne kept a diary of their life. In Aug. 1944, after being tipped off, the Germans arrested them all and send them to death camps. Anne and her sister were sent to Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp where they died of typhus in March 1945. Her diary was discovered by one of those who had hidden them and given to her father who survived the war. First published in 1947, it became a recognized world classic translated into numerous languages. The house in which they hid, known as the Anne Frank House, became a center of pilgrimage for visitors from all parts of the world and houses the Anne Frank Foundation established to fight anti-Semitism and racism.

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FRANK Origin of surname
FRANK

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

The Franks were a group of Germanic tribes living between the river Main and the North Sea, whom the Romans called Franci/Francos in the 3rd century CE. Franconia, first used in a Latin charter of 1053, Francia, France and Franken were names applied to a portion of the land occupied by the Franks which became one of the stem-duchies of medieval Germany. The present name of France in German, Frankreich, that is "empire of the Franks", has its origins in the establishment of the Frankish monarchy in Gaul by Clovis in the 5th century, and the eventual transformation of the Regnorum Francorum Occidentalium ("the western kingdom of the Franks"), as defined by the treaty of Verdun (843), into the heartland of the modern French state. Jews lived on the territory of France since the 4th century. Franco means "free/generous" in Spanish. In Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), it is the equivalent of the Arabic Franji/Ifranji, that is "Franks". Since the 12th century, these three terms were used in the east Mediterranean Muslim countries to designate all Europeans. In the 16th and subsequent centuries, the word Franco is found in Sephardi rabbinic literature as a name for European Ashkenazi Jews. In Eastern Europe, it first came to mean a Jew who was a Turkish subject, and then a Sephardi Ladino-speaking Jew. The family name Frank may also me associated with places such as Frankenberg and Frankenau in Hesse, Germany, Frankenburg in upper Austria, Frankenstein (Zabkowice) in Poland, and others. During the Inquisition in Spain, the members of a pre-15th century Spanish Franco family moved to Amsterdam, Venice, Tunis, Crete and London. The name is documented in Salonika (Greece) in 1492 and Bordeaux (France) in 1528. The Italian Franchi, as well as the German Frank and Frankel, are found in the 16th century. Franks, Franck, Franke, Frankenburger and Fraenkel are recorded in the 17th century, Franc and Franklin in the 18th, and Franchetti in the 19th century. The Jewish family name Frank probably originated in the central Rhineland area (western Germany). It is documented in the early 16th century with the Polish Rabbi Menachem Mendel Frank.

Distinguished bearers of this name include Jakob Ben Jehuda Loeb Frank (1726-1791), also known as 'Santo Senor' ("the sacred master"), who was the Polish founder of the Frankist sect which succeeded the Shabbatean Messianic movement; the German chemist Adolph Frank (1834-1916), whose work laid the foundations of Germany's Kali industry; and the German teacher and cantor, Rafael Frank (1867-1920), who invented the modern Frank-Ruehl Hebrew printed letters.
Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Jacob Frank

Jacob Frank (1726-1791), pseudo-messiah, born in Korolowka, Podolia, he was a trader who, while in Turkey, came into contact with the group that continued to believe in the messiahship of Shabbetai Tsevi. He began to study the Zohar and came to believe he was the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tsevi and developed a theology with a trinitarian basis (God, the Messiah, and the Shekhina - a female hypostasis of God). He acquired a following in eastern Europe and was excommunicated by the rabbis in 1756. The rabbis denounced the group to the Catholic authorities but Frank put himself under the protection of the bishop of Kaminiec-Podolski who ordered a public disputation. The Frankists accepted Christianity and Frank was baptized in Warsaw cathedral with the king as his godfather. However the Church grew suspicious and he was exiled for 13 years to the fortress of Czestochowa. On his release he moved to Bruenn and then to Offenbach where the sect was reestablished under the 'Holy Lord;' who now called himself Baron von Frank. After his death the sect continued to exist in Offenbach under Frank's daughter, Eve, as ' queen' and 'high priestess' practicing secret rites including ritual orgies. Eventually it disintegrated.

Anne Frank

Anne (Annelies Marie) Frank (1929-1945), author, born in  Frankfurt on Main, Germany. She was taken with her family to Amsterdam after the Nazis seized power in 1933. After Holland was invaded in 1940, her father prepared for the eventuality of hiding and in July 1942 the family and a few friends moved into the attic of the vacant annex of her father's business premises where they were hidden by four of her father's employees. For the next two years they remained in the attic and Anne kept a diary of their life. In Aug. 1944, after being tipped off, the Germans arrested them all and send them to death camps. Anne and her sister were sent to Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp where they died of typhus in March 1945. Her diary was discovered by one of those who had hidden them and given to her father who survived the war. First published in 1947, it became a recognized world classic translated into numerous languages. The house in which they hid, known as the Anne Frank House, became a center of pilgrimage for visitors from all parts of the world and houses the Anne Frank Foundation established to fight anti-Semitism and racism.