"Gordon" seems surprising as a Jewish name. It is usually and properly assumed to be Scottish, Norman English, or Irish, as a place name meaning "spacious fort." However, according to Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, the name is also "Jewish, Eastern Ashkenazic: probably a habituation name from the Belarus city of Grodno, whence the Eastern Ashkenazic surnames Gardin(ski). It goes back at least to 1657. It was widespread among Jews in Poland by the end of the 17th century, when two naturalized Polish noblemen, Henry and George Gordon, successfully introduced legislation to prevent its continued adoption by Jews.