What Kind of a Name is Student?

What kind of a name is Student? I get asked that all the time. That's what it was in Poland. It's listed in the Yad Vashem archives and on the Jewish Records Indexing website. It was not changed when my family came to America, and my great-uncle's family in Israel (he went to Palestine before the Holocaust) has the name also.

I remember once reading a column by Miss Manners in which she stated that it is improper to make a joke about someone's name. While the name may seem new to you, it has belonged to that person for his whole life. Any joke you may come up with on the spot he has probably heard at least a dozen times. Kal va-homer for someone named Student who used to work as an actuarial student!