This Ashkenazic Jewish surname RAAP is of uncertain origin. Most people bearing this name are descended from Avrom-Menakhem Ben-Yankev Hakoyen RAPA who lived in Porto, Italy at the beginning of the 16th century. In his case RAPA was an ornamental name, originally derived from the German word RAPPE (raven). According to one explanation, his descendants added the name of their city, Porto, in order to distinguish themselves from unrelated Jews named RAPA; according to another, there was a marriage between the RAPPA and PORTO families, and the issue of this union took the name. In any case, because this was a distinguished family, some unrelated Jews may have adopted the surname for the sake of its prestige. The name is also spelt RAPAPORT, RAPPOPORT and RAPOPORT. When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional society, and people often took the names playfully and let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which corresponded to nothing real in their world. No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being changed after emigration to other countries, such as the United States and Israel in recent years. A notable member of the name was Ernest A. RAPPAPORT, born on the 7th March, 1903. He was a psychiatrist, and his appointments included Instructor Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Chicago Medical School, and Consultant to the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute. He contributed to many professional journals. The name was brought into England in the wake of the Norman Conquest and RAP (without surname) documented in 1219, appears to be the first of the name on record. Agnes Rappe was recorded in County Lancashire in 1220, and Alice Rapper of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. |
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