Thread: Zimberoff

Hello all.

I have been doing geneology (family tree) research on my last name
for a few years now, and it is difficult because none of my immediate
ancestors really kept track of our distant ancestors.

My last name is Zimberoff, and it is a name that was spelled that way
in English by an immigration official in the USA who spoke English.

I do know that my great-grandfather came to the USA from Russia right
around 1900.

I have been trying to do research on whether there are still any Zimberoff's in Russia, but I do not speak or read Russian, so it is difficult
if not impossible.

I think that if I have to spell my name in Russian it would look like:

Зимберов - is that correct?

My questions... what does that really translate to in English? Is Zimberoff
really the correct English version of the family name? Is it different for
men and women in Russian?

Is it really just "Zimber" with some ending on it?

What does the "off" suffix really mean. I see it on a lot of Russian names.

I also have a few leads on specific towns where my ancestors might have
lived. How could I go about trying to find if there are any of them still
there, or anyone that would have birth / death records of them?

Thanks in advance!

-Jason Zimberoff

Are you Jewish, or at least of Jewish decent?

Zimber is a German name I believe, so Zimberoff is probably the Russified version of this. "Russia" in 1900 includes modern day Belarus and Ukraine and parts of Poland which then had large numbers of Jews. The population of Poland was around 11% Jewish before the Hollocaust.

Also there were Volga Germans, who were Germans who moved to the Volga region of Russia, so you're great-grandfather could belong to one of these groups.

Зимберов would be the Russian spelling. It directly transliterates to Zimberov, but the final V is devoiced to an F in Russian pronunciation, thus lots of Russian names have been spelt -off (Smirnoff is properly spelt Smirnov).

The -ov (off) suffix means "of" in English, roughly.

A woman would be Zimberova.

Yes - the name is Jewish - and my dad was born Jewish.

My mother was not however, so I am actually one of the few
Zimberoff's who was brought up Catholic!

As far as I know, my Zimberoff ancestors all were Jewish, and spoke
Yiddish and Russian.

Would an English translation of "Zimber" also be appropriate?

Some appear to have lived in the Ukraine near Kiev, and others seem
to come from other places in Belarus or in what is today Russia. All
of it seems to be around where Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia meet each
other.

I have some of the town names written down at home but cannot
remember them now.

-Jason Z.

From Zhitomir, perhaps?

Try this for starters:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=ukrai ... afe=images

Zimberoff - Z in German sounds like TS
So Цимберов is also right spelling

Зимберов
Цимберов
Цымберов

German word (plural)
Zimbern, Kimbern
Latin
Cimbri