by Jim Young (guest)
7/31/2007, 5:29 AM
It's Hebrew, a male given name, and is said to mean "joy".
As a surname it appears to be confined to Oriental Jewry (Mizrahi). The famous family of Sassoon, migrated from Iraq to India and thence to England, where they became very upper class English and no longer Jewish. The name is also found in Israel, and perhaps elsewhere in the Middle East.