Ashkenazic Jewry
Until the emancipation of the Jews in the late 18th century, most Jews in Europe used the traditional system of patrimonial Hebrew surnames. Exceptions included Jewish communities in large cities such as Prague or Frankfurt am Main, where many of the names were derived from house-signs; and rabbinical dynasties, which often used a town name, typically the birthplace of the founder of the dynasty. Such surnames were much easier to shed or change than they would be today, and did not have the official status that modern ones do.
The process of assigning permanent surnames to Jewish families (most of which are still used to this day) began in Austria-Hungary. On 23 July 1787, five years after the Edict of Tolerance, the Austrian emperor Joseph the second issued a decree called Das Patent über die Judennamen which compelled the Jews to adopt German surnames. Prussia did so soon after, beginning with Silesia: the city of Breslau in 1790, the Breslau administrative region in 1791, the Liegnitz region in 1794. In 1812, when Napoleon had occupied much of Prussia, surname adoption was mandated for the unoccupied parts; and Jews in the rest of Prussia adopted surnames in 1845.
Napoleon also, in a decree of July 20, 1808, insisted upon the Jews adopting fixed names His decree covered all lands west of the Rhine; and many other parts of Germany required surname-adoption within a few years. Oldenburg was the last principality to complete the process, in 1852.
At the end of the 18th century after the Partition of Poland the Russian Empire acquired a large number of Jews who did not use surnames. They, too, were required to adopt surnames during the early 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Jewish Surname