Shapiro is a Yidish surname which occasionally is said to be derived from the medieval name of Speyer, Germany. However, the word Shapiro is Aramaic (probably derived from the word for the sapphire gemstone) and appears, for example, in the 11th Century Aramaic-language Jewish religious poem Akdamus / Akdamuth (line 45) and in Onkelos' commentary on Genesis 29:17. Onkelos' commentary, believed to have been written around 110 CE, long predated the naming of Speyer (as Spira) in approximately 500 CE.