- Apr 24, 2020
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Yeah, I've known a few Jewish friends with non-Jewish surnames. One family has a name that actually originates in Gloucestershire, England.AFAIK, Johnson is a Scandinavian name that follows the tradition of having your second name be that of your father (Johnson = son of John). I think Iceland still does this. Judaism was not common in those areas. It's entirely possible they could have converted or that she was Jewish and Erik's father wasn't.
Like Vito Corleone, born Vito Andolini from the town of Corleone.Also, here in America, we had a tradition of changing peoples' names to something more easily pronounceable. The most common group with the name Johnson are black because... well... see history. But this was common to all at the time. My Italian family name is lost to the ages and now we go by the name of the town we came from.