When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional society, and people often took the names playfully and let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which corresponded to nothing real in their world. No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being changed after emigration to other countries, such as the United States and Israel in recent years. This Jewish ornamental name ATLAS was ultimately from an Arabic word meaning 'smooth' and was possibly a metonymic occupational name for a maker or a seller of articles made of satin. It was also an acrostic name from the Hebrew 'Ach Tov Leyisrael Sela' a name meaning 'truly, God is good to Israel' the opening words of Psalm 73. The are many variant spellings of the name which include Eidel, Atlasz, Atlasman, Atlasovitch, Atlasovitz, Atlasowich and Atlasberg. Occupational surnames originally denoted the actual occupation followed by the individual. At what period they became hereditary is a difficult problem. Many of the occupation names were descriptive and could be varied. In the Middle Ages, at least among the Christian population, people did not usually pursue specialized occupations exclusively to the extent that we do today, and they would, in fact, turn their hand to any form of work that needed to be done, particularly in a large house or mansion, or on farms and smallholdings. In early documents, surnames often refer to the actual holder of an office, whether the church or state.