The meaning of names among Mediterranean Jews

Marc Eliany ©

ANKRY (Ankri Ancri ala'nkri)
LANKRY LANCRY
among other possible variations depending on the country and language of the person.

The name Ankri are is common in North Africa. It may be an indication of origin, refering to a location, perhaps the town of Lancara in the province of Leon in Spain or the village of A'nkar or A'nka in the area of Mount Nefoussa in Tunisia.

Prefixes attached to the root name such as (aben, iben, abi, avi, am, ben, bin, abou, a, aj, al, bel, i, la, lel, me, m, o, wi, vi, ) denotes usually a relation to a person, i.e., the father of or the son of X, a place, i.e., a person from X, an occupation, i.e., a person who practices a specific occupation, a characteristic of a person, i.e., beautiful... The prefixes al, el are equivalent to 'the' in English or the article 'le' in French. In the Moroccan Berbers tradition, prefixes such as 'wi' 'vi' 'i' means usually a family relationship to X, the equivalent of Abu in Arabic, i.e., 'the father of', 'son of' a man, a tribal affiliation and so forth.In the Hebrew tradition, the prefix ‘M ‘ is an abbreviation of the word 'from.'

Suffixes such as 'i' or 'ri' refer to an association with a person or a location, for example: Ankri= from anka.
Suffixes such as 'illo' 'ano' 'ino' 'nino' are used in Spain and Italy to indicate descendence or association with an attribute.

ANKRY Serge (XXes.). Tunisia. Filmmaker in Israel. Director of 'Le couscous de ma mère' (My mother's couscous).
LANCRY Yéhoudah (XXes.). Morocco. Member of parliament on behalf of Guecher. Ambassador of Israel in France and the United Nations. Author of Michel Butor.

References:

Azoulay, Hayim Yossef Shem Hagdolim (the names of the great)

AZOULAY Haïm Yossef David (Hida) (1724-1807) Chém haguédolim va’ad lahakhamim (The names of the Great Council of Sages).

Levi, J et. al. 2000        Dictionnaire biographique du monde Juif Sepharade et Mediteranean, Editions Elysee, Montreal.

Toledano, J. 1983        La saga des familles, Les juifs du Maroc et leurs noms, Editions Stavit, Tel Aviv

Laredo A. 1978           Les noms des juifs au Maroc (Madrid, 1978)