Segal Explained

Segal, and its variants including Sagal, Segel, Sigal or Siegel, is a family name which is primarily Ashkenazi Jewish.

The name is said to be derived from Hebrew segan leviyyah (assistant to the Levites)^{[1] [2] [3]} although a minority of sources claim that "Segal" is instead a Hebrew abbreviation for segan le-kehunah (assistant to the Cohen – assistant to the priest).^{[4] [5]}

People

Notable people with the surname include:

• Abe Segal (1930–2016), South African tennis player
• Alan F. Segal (1945–2011), American Professor of Jewish Studies
• Allan Segal (1941–2012), British documentary filmmaker
• Alvin Segal (born 1933), American-Canadian businessman and philanthropist
• Anna Segal (born 1986), Australian Olympic freestyle skier and 2-time world champion
• Anthony Segal (born 1944), British physician/scientist
• Brandon Segal (born 1983), Canadian ice hockey player
• Charles Segal (1936–2002), American historian and classicist
• D. Segal, pen name of Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Dan Segal (born 1947), British mathematician
• David HaLevi Segal (1586–1667), Polish rabbi and Halakhist
• David Segal (politician), Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and candidate for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district
• Erich Segal (1937–2010), American author, screenwriter, and educator
• Ester H. Segal, Israeli nanotechnologist and educator
• Francesca Segal (born 1980), British author and journalist
• Gabriel Segal (philosopher) (born 1959), British professor, philosopher and author
• George Segal (artist) (1924–2000), American sculptor and painter
• George Segal (1934–2021), American actor
• Gloria Segal (1928–1993), American politician
• Graeme Segal (born 1941), Australian mathematician
• Hugh Segal (1950–2023), Canadian Senator and co-chair of the Conservative Party of Canada campaign in the 2006 Federal Election
• Irving Segal (1918–1998), American mathematician
• Jack Segal (1918–2005), American composer
• Jakob Segal (1911–1995), biology professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin
• Jeffrey Segal (1920–2015), British actor
• Jérôme Segal (born 1970), French-Austrian essayist, historian, and journalist
• Joel Segal, American liberal activist
• Jonathan Segal (actor), (1953–1999), American television actor
• Judah Segal (1912–2003), British professor of Semitics
• Kate Segal (born 1975), Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the 62nd district
• Katey Sagal (born 1953), American actress and singer-songwriter
• Lore Segal (born 1928), Austrian-American novelist and Pulitzer Prize finalist
• Marilyn Segal, American psychologist
• Mike Segal, (1922-1982) American politician
• Michael Segal (born 1972), Israeli scholar of computer science
• Moshe Zvi Segal (1875–1968), Israeli rabbi
• Nachum Segal, Jewish American DJ
• Nancy L. Segal (born 1951), American evolutionary psychologist and behavioral geneticist
• Ned Segal (born), American business executive
• Peter Sagal (born 1965), American radio host
• Peter Segal (born 1962), American film director
• Philip Segal (born 1958), English-born television producer
• Richard D. Segal, American businessman and art collector
• Ronald Segal (1932–2008), South African writer and activist
• Samuel Segal (1902–1985), British doctor and politician
• Sandra Segal Ikuta, United States circuit judge
• Sara Segal, later Sophia Karp (1861–1904), the first professional Yiddish theatre actress
• Sharmin Segal (born 1995), Indian actress in Hindi films
• Steve Segal, American animator
• Stephen H. Segal, American science fiction writer and editor
• Sydney Segal, American female contestant on reality show Survivor 41#
• Tobias Segal, American actor
• Yehiel Segal, (1924 –1996), Israeli painter
• Yuval Segal (born 1971), Israeli actor and comedian
• Walter Segal (1907–1985), German-born Romanian architect working in England, who developed a system of self-build housing
• Zindel Segal (born 1956), Ukrainian-Canadian cognitive psychologist, one of the founders of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

See also

• • Chagall (disambiguation)
• Siegel
• Segel
• Sigel (disambiguation)

Notes and References

1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion ed. Adele Berlin - 2011-p3 "Various family names are derived from abbreviations; for example, Katz (kohen tsedeq [righteous priest]) and Segal (segan leviyyah [Levitical aide]). Abbreviations or acronyms were commonly employed in Talmudic literature as an exegetical ..."
2. Jewish Budapest: Monuments, Rites, History ed. Kinga Frojimovics, Géza Komoróczy - 1999 p190 "Siegel / Segal / Segall / Chagall, etc.: segan levayya, leader of the Levites (sagan is a loanword from Ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian and Akkadian, originally denoting a dignity).
3. Ladies' Home Journal Vol.90 page liii ed. Newell Convers Wyeth - 1973 "Thus levi Segal is a descendents of Ben Rabbi Judah Lowe became Brill; Segan Leviyyah became the surname Segal or Segel."
4. Precious possessions: treasures from the Library of the Sharon Liberman Mintz, Elka Deitsch, Havva Charm - 2001 p38 "... pouring water from a pitcher into a laver. This illustration is a visual reference to the Levitical ancestry of the family of the bridegroom whose surname (Segal) is a standard Hebrew abbreviation for segan le-kehunah (assistant to the priest)."
5. Sidney Steiman, Custom And Survival, A Study Of The Life Of Rabbi Jacob Molin, the Maharil, 1963, p.4