Father or Mother

Sefardim engrave on the Matzeiva, the name of

the Niftar  and the Niftar’s mother's name.

Ashkenazim engrave  the name of

the Niftar and the Niftar’s father's name.

Recently  Ashkenazim have a Minhag to add another

line at the bottom, and write Sheim Imoi/Imoh -----

The vast majority of the old Kevorim in Eretz Yisroel

had no engraving at all.

Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky zt"l, writes*, in the year 1928,

the Jerusalem Museum exihibited old coffins and bones

which were found on Har Hatzofim.  He went with Rav A.Y.

Kook zt”l and managed to convince the Museum to

return the bones for reburial.

(interesting- quiet Shtadlonus without public protests & riots,

 can sometimes be effective as well)

The Museum insisted  to keep the coffins. R.Y.M.T. noted

there were 23 coffins, from two families. 10 came from

one family and 13 from the other family.

4 of the 10 had engraved only the name. (Yehuda, Chana,

Miriam, Yehuda) The other 6 had no engraving at all.

The other family had all 13 coffins engraved. Two had

names without the father. Three had the name followed by

the word” Ben” (son) fathers name was illegible. Two women

both were called  Shalom. One was Eishes Yehudah, the other was

Eishes Elozor. One was Shimon Avi (father of) Yosef.  The other

five had  their names the sons of their  fathers.

These coffins were from Zman Bayis Sheini and followed

the Ashkenazi Minhag of naming the father, not the

mother.

Gesher Hachayim  2  p205