HADDAD Origin of surname

HADAD, HADDAD, AL-HADDAD

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 patronymic, derived from a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin. The name also derives from an occupation (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade). The biblical Hadad was the son of Ishmael (Genesis 25.15). Had(d)ad is the Arabic word for "blacksmith", and is considered to be the Arabic equivalent of the Spanish name Ferreres.

According to Jewish Moroccan chronicles, Had(d)ad was a name was borne by a family of 'cohanim' ("priests") who had been deprived of their priestly functions. The name is also recorded among Jewish families from Yemen. Most of the Hadad families, who came to Israel from Yemen during the 1950s, changed its name to the Hebrew translation Barzelai. Other related family names include: Ben Alhadad, documented as a Jewish surname with Rabbi Israel Ben Alhadad in 1313 in Spain, and Elhadad in 16th century Spain.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish surname Hadad include the 18th century Tunisian rabbi and author Isaac Hadad. Hadad is recorded as a Jewish family name with Shmuel Hadad, rabbi of the Moroccan community in Egypt in the 17th century, and Elhaadad with the chartered accountant Albert Elhaadad in 20th century Israel. The family name is also registered in a list of Jewish Yemenite families, made by Rabbi Shalom Gamliel, who was sent from Israel to Aden in 1949 to assist in the organization of the mass aliya from Yemen.

Distinguished bearers of the name include Rabbi Isaac Haddad (died 1765) from Djerba, Tunisia, author of 'Toldot Ishaq', 'Karnei Re'em' and 'Zera Ishaq', published in Livorno after his death. In the 19th century, Haddad is recorded as a Jewish family name on a 'ketubbah' from Tunis dated September 24, 1806, of Esther, daughter of Abraham Haddad, and her husband Abraham, son of Isaac Bonan.

Distinguished 20th century bearers of the family name Haddad include the Tunisian merchant and publicist Nessim Haddad (born 1868), founder of the newspaper 'Le Defenseur' (1908-1911), who was active for Tunisian Jews civil rights; the jurist Charles Haddad (born 1910 in Tunis), counsel at the court of Tunis and president of the Jewish community (1951-1958), who founded an association of Jews from Tunis in Marseilles and published four books: 'Juifs et Arabes au Pays de Bourguiba' (1977), 'Les Quatre Saisons du Ghetto' (1984), 'Les Juifs de Tunisie a Bible Vecue' (1988) and 'France, Israel, Tunisie' (1997); the French writer, Haroun Haddad; the Iraqi-born Israeli labor official, educator and author, Ezra Yehezkel Haddad; and the American physician and educator, Heskel M. Haddad, president of the world organization for Jews from Arab countries.