Segal, and its variants including Sagal, Segel, Sigal or Siegel, is a family name which is primarily Ashkenazi Jewish.

The name is said to be derived from Hebrew segan 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:

Mathematical concepts

Other uses

  • Segal–Cover score, attempt to measure relative liberalism or conservatism of U.S. Supreme Court Justices

See also

References

  1. 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 ..."
  2. 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).
  3. 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."
  4. 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)."
  5. Sidney Steiman, Custom And Survival, A Study Of The Life Of Rabbi Jacob Molin, the Maharil, 1963, p.4
  • "Segal Association", www.segal.org, website of the Segal association
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