Explore the Family Name Jaffe

Possible origins of the surname Jaffe

Your DNA provides clues about where your recent ancestors may have lived. Having many distant relatives in the same location suggests that you may all share common ancestry there. Locations with many distant relatives can also be places where people have migrated recently, such as large cities. If a large number of individuals who share your surname have distant relatives in a specific area, it could indicate a connection between your surname and that location, stemming from either recent ancestral ties or migration.

Based on 23andMe data, people with last name Jaffe have recent ancestry locations in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Ireland.

What Jaffe haplogroups can tell you

Haplogroups are genetic population groups that share a common ancestor on either your paternal or maternal line. These paternal and maternal haplogroups shed light on your genetic ancestry and help tell the story of your family.

The top paternal haplogroup of people with the surname Jaffe is E-M5021, which is predominantly found among people with European ancestry. Haplogroup E-M5021 is descended from haplogroup E-M96. Other common haplogroups include E-L791 and E-L29, which are predominantly found among people with European and European ancestry. Other surnames with similar common haplogroups are: Silverstein, Resnick, Rosenfeld, Frankel, Goldberg, Hyman, Pearlman, Wasserman, Wiener, Friedman.

The most common maternal haplogroups of people with Jaffe surname are: K1a1b1a, H1, H. These most commonly trace back to individuals of European ancestry.

Your paternal lineage may be linked to early European farmers

If you have haplogroup E1b1b1, your paternal line stems from a branch of E-M215 called E-M5021. Men bearing this lineage migrated from the Balkans to southwestern Europe during the spread of agriculture by early farmers in the agricultural revolution, which began about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Early members of haplogroup E1b1b1, some of the world's first farmers, had a competitive advantage over native men, who didn't have farming technology. As a result of this advantage, haplogroup E1b1b1 became widespread and populous during the agricultural revolution. The effects of this ancient advantage are still seen today, with haplogroup E1b1b1 being represented from Portugal and Spain to Palestine, southern Africa, and Russia.

Your maternal lineage may be linked to many people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent

A few branches of haplogroup K, such as K1a9, K2a2a, and K1a1b1a, are specific to Jewish populations and especially to Ashkenazi Jews, whose roots lie in central and eastern Europe. These branches of haplogroup K are found at levels of 30% among the Ashkenazim. But they are also found at lower levels in Jewish populations from the Middle East and Africa, and among Sephardic Jews who trace their roots to medieval Spain. That indicates an origin of those K haplogroup branches in the Middle East before 70 AD, when the Roman destruction of Jerusalem scattered the Jewish people around the Mediterranean and beyond.About 1.7 million Ashkenazi Jews living today (nearly 20% of the population) share a single branch of the K haplogroup, K1a1b1a. The diversity of that haplogroup suggests that it arose in the Middle East between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, and that everyone who shares it today could descend from a woman who lived as recently as 700 years ago. A similar pattern in two other K branches, K1a9 and K2a2, as well as the N1b branch of haplogroup N, has led researchers to conclude that 40% of the Ashkenazim living today – about 3.4 million people – could descend from as few as four women who lived within the last 2,000 years.