The meaning of names among Mediterranean Jews

Marc Eliany ?

Allon
Alloun

among other possible variations depending on the country and language of the person.

The root of the name may be ‘alon’ in Hebrew or ‘loun’ in Arabic.

Allon may be a Hebrew name, refering to a type of tree: oak. Typical prefixes attached to a root name do not apply in this case.
Alloun may be an Arabic deformation of the Hebrew name Alon or Allon. However, Al ‘loun’ may be an Arab name refering to ‘paint’ or ‘color’ refering possibly to a person who made, sold or dealt with coloring.

Prefixes attached to the root name such as (aben, iben, abi, avi, ben, bin, abou, a, aj, al, bel, i, me, m, o, wi, vi, ) denotes usually a relation to a person, i.e., the father of or the son of X, a place, i.e., a person from X, an occupation, i.e., a person who practices a specific occupation, a characteristic of a person, i.e., beautiful… The prefixes al, el are equivalent to ‘the’ in English or the article ‘le’ in French. In the Moroccan Berbers tradition, prefixes such as ‘wi’ ‘vi’ ‘i’ means usually a family relationship to X, the equivalent of Abu in Arabic, i.e., ‘the father of’, ‘son of’ a man, a tribal affiliation and so forth.In the Hebrew tradition, the prefix ‘M ‘ is an abbreviation of the word ‘from.’

ALLON G?rard (1949-). Morocco. Painter. Photographer. Made hologrammes on Genesis.

ALLOUN Abraham (XVIIes.).Morocco.Rabbi. Author of S?f?r d?r?kh (The book of the path) settled in Palestine.

References:

Azoulay, Hayim Yossef Shem Hagdolim (the names of the great)

AZOULAY Ha?m Yossef David (Hida) (1724-1807) Ch?m hagu?dolim va?ad lahakhamim (The names of the Great Council of Sages).

Levi, J et. al. 2000        Dictionnaire biographique du monde Juif Sepharade et Mediteranean, Editions Elysee, Montreal.

Toledano, J. 1983        La saga des familles, Les juifs du Maroc et leurs noms, Editions Stavit, Tel Aviv

Laredo A. 1978           Les noms des juifs au Maroc (Madrid, 1978)