Last Name Please

Last name please. Fans wondered about Barry's last name of Manilow. Now was really a Jewish name.. Just for them Barry looked up his last name of Manilow to see if it really was a Jewish last name. Barry checked out one site which had many different spellings. Manlow, Manilow, Manilo, Manlove and Menlow. According to that website it was an interesting surname which was English. it talked about the name Mann leof  from the pre 7th century. Leof meant dear while Mann meant friend. Then there was another website which said his last name was Jewish (from the Ukraine). patronymic from the personal name Manele, a pet form of Emanuel. Now Barry was even more confused than ever. His mom's parents Joseph and Ester were gone. So was his mom Edna and his aunt Rose. Of the three grandkids Dennis was the oldest, Olivia was the middle and he was the youngest. He figured Dennis and Olivia didn't know anything about their grandfather's last name of Manilow. He even wondered if his grandfather's dad Louis Manilow changed his last name to Manilow once he got to the US. Barry had met his great grandparents Louis and Anna Manilow Joseph's parents. As well as Abraham and Bertha Yanoff Esther's parents. They were Esther's parents. Bertha was just like her daughter Esther a real tough lady. Barry knew the meaning of his first and middle names. His first name was actually Barack a Hebrew name meaning lighting. Alon was his middle name a Hebrew name for tree or oak tree. Barack could be shortened to Barry. His mom's parents Joseph and Esther were Jewish. They came over from some city in Russia to America. Both Joseph and Esther's parents settled in Baltimore. That's  why both his aunt Rose and his mom Edna were born in Baltimore.  How his aunt, mom and grandparents ended up in Brooklyn New York was beyond him. Barry was never given his biological dad's last name of Pincus which Harold use to marry Barry's mom Edna. His grandmother Esther hated her son-in-law Harold Pincus with a passion. Barry birth certificate read Barack Alon Manilow. Very rarely did his grandpa, grandma and mom call him by his full name. But then a kids full name was only used when their relatives were mad at them for something they did. His grandpa and grandma always called him Barack. While his mom called him Barry. Last year Carly did the Ancestry DNA test to see what her pie chart looked like. Her pie chart showed she was 100% Jewish. Her dad's last name was Simon and her mom's last name was Rosenberg. Barry knew Carly's mom Norah Rosenberg Simon's parents were from the Ukraine. Carly's dad John Simon's parents were from St. Petersburg or Leningrad as it was originally called. He had thought about doing the Ancestry DNA test on himself. A few fans had  said they would like to see him do TLC's Who Do You Think You Are program. The program took celebrities on a journey so they could discover their roots. Where their ancestors came from. Most of the celebrities who did the show had their DNA test done for the program. His father-in-law wondered if Barry's last name was really Malinowitz since that was definitely a Jewish last name. Manilow didn't sound like a Jewish name to Carly's dad. Barry kind of agreed with his father-in-law John Simon. But the name Malinowitz was a weird last Barry thought. To Barry that name sounded more Polish than Jewish.  He knew he was 3/4th Jewish and 1/4th Irish. His mom's family was Jewish. That included his mom. her parents and sister. His biological dad's parents were 1/2 Jewish and 1/2 Irish. His grandpa on his dad's side was Jewish. While his grandma on his dad's side was Irish. Barry had nothing to do with his biological dad or his parents. He did wish his mom was still around to answer the question about the nationality of his last name. Barry had gone into some websites that had Jewish last names.  But he never found his last name of Manilow listed under the M's. So maybe Manilow wasn't a Jewish name. Barry figured he might never know the truth. He had called his cousin Dennis and asked him if he knew if their grandfather's last name of Manilow was Jewish Dennis said he really didn't know if  the name Manilow was Jewish or not. There was one surname site that mentioned the following. This (Manilow) is an interesting surname is English. It is baptismal and derives from the pre 7th century Old English 'Mann-leof' a compound name whose elements translates as 'Dear Friend' with leof' meaning dear and 'mann', a friend. So maybe his last name was actually English and not Jewish. He knew some people screwed up his name by pronouncing it wrong. Then those same people would
ask how do you pronounce Manilow?. However you say it is fine with me said Barry. He figured he was stuck with a last name that didn't know where it originated from.