Nothing personal, just the observation, that in my home country, the jews, by virtue of their names, were the most german germans around, the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers and Dreifuss. Then a Jewish customer answered my question about that: These local sounding names were given these families for taxation purposes.
I didn't take it personal.
There is a lot of confusion with people because Jews have two names, a secular one and a Hebrew name.
For instance, the surname "Hernandez" is Jewish but most people think it's Hispanic in origin. In a sense they are correct in that the Jews of Spain invented the name for themselves (and then got scattered due to the Alhambra Decree). The same goes for "Campos" and "Marroquin" which are the names of my Jewish ancestors from Spain. People think these are in the Spanish language, but all three names are actually in Ladino.
The secular names the Ashkenazi Jews took for themselves sound European. That's why people with the last name "Gold" and "Stein" aren't always Jewish. Unlike the Sephardic Jews that invented names for themselves, the Ashkenazi usually adopted or adapted their secular surnames. Sephardic Jews often invented names for themselves to disguise themselves as Catholic, such as "De La Paz" or "De La Cruz." The surname "Pena" is Sephardic, and means "Peter" after St. Peter. (Crypto Jews tried to blend in and hide this way through new names.)
My Hebrew name is "Caleb Judah-Bendavid Cohen" but most mistake my secular name for something that comes from Mexico (which I've not disclosed). Something similar goes for Ashkenazi Jews, as my friend "Adam Saul Goldberg" has the Hebrew name of "Ashur Saul Avram."