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) 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).
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 (1933–2022), 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
- Jason Segal (born 1980), American actor
- Jeffrey Segal (1920–2015), British actor
- Jérôme Segal (born 1970), French-Austrian essayist, historian, and journalist
- Joel Segal, American sports agent
- 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 (1928–2024), 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 c. 1974), 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
- Steven Seagal (born 1952), American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician
- 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
References
- The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion ed. Adele Berlin - 2011-p3 "Various family names are derived from abbreviations; for example, Katz (kohen tsedeq ) and Segal (segan leviyyah ). Abbreviations or acronyms were commonly employed in Talmudic literature as an exegetical ..."
- 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).
- 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."
- 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)."
- Sidney Steiman, Custom And Survival, A Study Of The Life Of Rabbi Jacob Molin, the Maharil, 1963, p.4
Surname listThis page lists people with the surname Segal. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link. Categories: