Spira
Spira , Spiro , Schpira , Schapiro etc. is a Jewish family name based on the medieval name of the city of Speyer in Rhineland-Palatinate , Latin Spira, Hebrew שפירא[ ʃpiːra ʃpiːro ] goes back.
Speyer, one of the three so-called ShUM cities , played an important role in Ashkenazi Judaism in the Middle Ages , and many rabbis emerged from Speyer's Jewish community . Jewish families adopted the name Spira in many variations and spellings or added it to their name. In addition to Spira and Spiro, for example Schapira / Shapira , Schapiro / Shapiro , Szpira / Szpiro , Spier , possibly also Safir / Sapir . The name “Speyer” was also common among German Jews, especially in Frankfurt.
Due to migration and expulsions , the name first spread to Eastern Europe, Bohemia , Galicia and Poland-Lithuania , and then worldwide in the course of the emigration of Central and Eastern European Jews.
family name
- Aaron Simeon Spira-Wedeles (1640–1679), rabbinical authority
- Andreas Spira (1929–2004), German classical philologist
- Annette Spiro (* 1957), Swiss architect
- Ben Shapiro (* 1984), American author, lawyer and conservative political commentator
- Bil Spira (1913–1999), Austrian cartoonist
- Camilla Spira (1906–1997), German actress
- Chaim Elazar Spira (1871–1937), Hasidic rabbi
- David Spiro (1901–1970), Polish-German rabbi
- Elizabeth T. Spira (1942–2019), Austrian journalist
- Emma Spira , married Plank, (1905–1990), Austro-American educator
- Ernst Spiro (1873–1950), German railway engineer
- Esther Schapira (* 1961) journalist and filmmaker
- Eugene Spiro ( Eugen Spiro ; 1874–1972), German-American painter
- Françoise Spira (1928–1965), French film and theater actress
- Fred Spira (1924–2007), Austrian photography pioneer
- Friedrich Spiro (1863–1940), German classical philologist and musicologist
- Fritz Spira (1877–1943), Austrian actor
- Georges Spiro (1909–1994), Polish-French painter
- Gregor Vogt-Spira (* 1956), German classical philologist
- György Spiró (* 1946), Hungarian writer and playwright
- Helen Shapiro (born 1946), British singer
- Henry Spira (1927–1998), Belgian-American animal rights activist
- Herbert Spiro (1924–2010), American political scientist, diplomat and politician
- Ignaz Spiro (1817–1894), industrialist in the paper industry
- Jean Markus Spiro (around 1862–1902), German theater actor, see Jean Felix
- Joel Spira († 2015), American inventor and entrepreneur
- Johannes de Spira (15th century – 1469 or 1470), printer in Venice
- Jordana Spiro (born 1977), American actress
- Karl Spiro (1867–1932), German physicist
- Leopold Spira (1913–1997), Austrian publicist and political author
- Lotte Spira (1883–1943), German actress
- Mela Spira (1893–1967), Austrian actress and writer
- Melford E. Spiro (1920-2014), American cultural anthropologist
- Meyer Schapiro (1904–1996), American art historian of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
- Samantha Spiro (born 1968), British actress
- Steffie Spira (1908–1995), German actress
- Stanley Grove Spiro (1900–1948), South African pilot and banker
- Theodor Spira (1885–1961), German Anglicist
- Wendelinus de Spira († 1477), printer in Venice
First name
- Spiro Agnew (1918–1996), American politician
- Spiro Dellerba (1923-1968) American football player
literature
- Meyer Kayserling, Schulim Ochser: SPIRA (SPIRO). In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906.
- Frieder Schmidt: Spiro (paper manufacturers). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , pp. 707 f. ( Digitized version ).