At the top of most Jewish
tombstones is the abbreviation
 , which stands for
po nikbar or po nitman, meaning "here lies".
If any Hebrew characters
at all are written on a tombstone, they are most likely to be the person's
Hebrew name. A Hebrew name always includes a patronymic, the person's
father's given name. The Hebrew word
 , ben, means "son
of", as in "Yaakov ben Yitzhak", meaning "Yaakov the son of Yitzhak".
 , bat, means
"daughter of". On tombstones these words will often appear as
 , an
abbreviation for ben reb, meaning "son (or daughter) of the
worthy", followed by the father's given name. The word reb is a
simple honorific, a title of respect — it does not mean Rabbi.
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