Behar Family History

Spanish (Béhar): variant of Bejar. Jewish (from the Ottoman Empire): acronymic surname from the first letters of the Hebrew expression ben kvod rabbi ‘son of a honored rabbi’ in which the last word does not necessarily mean a spiritual leader of a Jewish community; it represents a title of respect for a man close to English Mister.

In the Ottoman Empire, Jews who had no fixed surname were traditionally named in Hebrew documents according to the pattern X bekhar Y where X and Y are male personal names. For example, Abraham bekhar Moshe means ‘Abraham the son of Mister Moshe’.

At the turn of the 20th century, for numerous Ottoman Jews having no surname, Be(k)har was recorded as their surname. Compare Bachar 1 and Bahar.