Mendelssohn (or Mendelsohn) is a Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles"; it can refer to several subjects:
People
Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:
- Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1776-1835), banker, son of Moses, father of Fanny and Felix
- Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847), composer and pianist, daughter of Abraham, granddaughter of Moses, sister of Felix
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), composer, son of Abraham, grandson of Moses, brother of Fanny
- Heinrich Mendelssohn (1881–1959), building tycoon
- Kurt Mendelssohn, medical physicist
- Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), German Jewish philosopher, grandfather of Felix and Fanny
There are also a number of people with the variation Mendelsohn.
- Ben Mendelsohn (born 1969), Australian actor and musician
- Carol Mendelsohn, a TV writer
- Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953), Prussian architect
- Matthew Mendelsohn, a Canadian university professor and public policy consultant
- Robert O. Mendelsohn, American economist
- Robert S. Mendelsohn, American physician and critic of mainstream medicine
- Daniel Mendelsohn, American author and classics scholar
