In France, the secular name was in French; in Spain in Spanish and other vernacular languages, in North Africa and the Middle East in Arabic,[12] in ancient Babylon, the kinnui was in Babylonian and so on.
A few kinnuim are based on the animal-like attributes of four of the sons of Jacob[13] and one of his grandsons: Judah, the lion (cf.
the family names Hirsch, Hersch, Harris); and Issachar,[14] the donkey[15](or the bear) (cf.
the family names Bar, Baer, Barell, Barnard, Bernhardt, Berthold, Schulter[16]); plus Ephraim, the fish (cf.
The "shem hakodesh" usually appears only in connection with Jewish religious observances, for example, a record of circumcision (brit[4]), in a marriage contract (ketubah[4]), a writ of divorce (get[4]) or on a memorial stone.