You may wonder what kidoni means. Well, it is essentially my family name, in
a round about way. This is all according to my late father, and I haven’t
verified the Romanian aspect … because I don’t care! I like the story, such as
it is.
My father (and his brother and sister) was born in Romania in 1929. This as you hopefully know is (just) before World War II. My family is Jewish, and so not a great time to be in eastern Europe. While they survived the war staying in Bucharest, when the war was over they moved to Israel. Then the family moved to the United States in the early 1950s. Eventually you get me. But the story is about “kidoni” not my family history. I discuss this just enough to convey these key points:
- my surname Suliteanu is Romanian.
- my family is Jewish and lived in Israel
A corollary to the second point is that obviously Israelis speak Hebrew as their native national language.
According to my father, “Suliteanu” means javelin, or at least that’s how I remember the story. This is the part I haven’t and won’t bother verifying. In Hebrew, javelin is כִּידוֹן which transliterated is “kidoni”.
Q.E.D.