Kaplan is a surname that is of ultimately Latin origins. There is also a historically unrelated surname in Turkey.

History

In European languages

Etymologically, the word originates from the Latin term, capellanus or cappellanus, an office given to persons appointed to watch over the sacred cloak (cappa or capella) of St Martin of Tours.[1] Its derivations were then found in many other European languages, including Yiddish, German, English, French, Czech, Polish, Norwegian, Croatian, and Hungarian.

The French form derived from the old Norman French word "caplain", which gave the old French and medieval English word "chapelain", both meaning "charity priest", who was a priest who was endowed to sing Mass daily on behalf of the souls of the dead. Hence the name is an occupational name for a clergyman or perhaps a servant of one.[2] From there the word and name spread. Modern variations on Kaplan include Caplan, Chaplain, Chapling, Caplen, Copland, Kapelan, and Kaplin.

In Turkish

The name is also very popular in Turkey, where the meaning of Kaplan is tiger.[3] When the Turks adopted surnames after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's surname reform, animals as surnames such as lion (Aslan) and tiger (Kaplan) were very common.

Spread

In German the term Kaplan means chaplain or curate.[4] The word is extant in other languages as well, for example in Polish where the term kapłan translates as priest,[5] in Hungarian 'káplán' means a priest of the royal court or that of an aristocrat; in Norwegian where it also has the meaning of priest while retaining the original, elongated form.

Kaplan or Caplan is also a surname common among Ashkenazi Jews, usually indicating descent from the priestly lineage (the kohanim), similar to the etymological origin of the common Hebrew surname Cohen. One of the earliest modern records of Kaplan as a family name is that of Abraham Kaplan in 1698. Distinguished bearers of the name include the Polish rabbi and philanthropist Nachum ben Usiel Kaplan (1811–1879), the Latvian-born Hebrew poet Seeb Wolf Kaplan (1826–1887) and the Russian-born Zionist workers' leader Eliezer Kaplan (1891–1952), the first minister of finance of the State of Israel.[6][7]

Not all Jews bearing this name belong to the priestly caste; at one time in the Russian empire male Jews other than priests were required to join the Russian army for 25 years, and a number changed their surnames to Kaplan in the hope of gaining exemption from military service.[8]

Notable people and characters named Kaplan

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chaplain" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 852.
  2. ↑ "Kaplan". The Internet Surname Database. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "Turkish Dictionary for Language Learners and Travelers to Turkey". turkishdictionary.net. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  4. ↑ "kaplan – Wörterbuch Deutsch-Englisch". WordReference.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Free Polish-English-Polish Translator and online Polish Dictionary". poltran.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  6. ↑ Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora
  7. ↑ What's in a name? Kaplan at JewishGen.org
  8. ↑ Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges ‘A Dictionary of Surnames’ OUP 1989 ‘Kaplan’
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