. . . now I understand :-)
According to Mrs
Claire, a Jewish girl who used to be a regular poster on BtN, there are three ways of finding an equivalent Jewish name for an English name (or French name, or whatever).
The first way is to simply use the Hebrew version of the English name, if it has one. So someone named
Simon might use
Shimon as his Hebrew name.
The second way is to use a name with a similar meaning. For example, someone named
Evadne ("good") could potentially use the Jewish name
Tova ("good").
The third way is to find a name that starts with a similar set of sounds to the given name. So, someone named
Brooke might use the name
Breindel as their Jewish name.
I can give you some suggestions, but I must point out that I am *NOT* Jewish although I have Jewish ancestry, and I don't speak Hebrew. If you want a 'genuinely' Jewish name you should ask a Rabbi.
Lonna (variation of Lana, short for Alana or Svetlana, meanings "little rock", "handsome", "light"):
Leah,
Leeba,
Liat,
Liora,
Livna,
Livnat (sound similar);
Sela (means "rock"),
Jaffe (means "beautiful"),
Nava (means "beautiful"),
Shayna (means "beautiful"),
Shiphrah (means "beautiful"),
Lior,
Liora,
Liorit (mean "light"),
Orit (means "light"),
Orah (means "light").
I'd recommend
Liora or
Livna for Lonna.
Rhonda (Welsh, meaning "good spear" or "noisy"):
Roni,
Ronit (sound similar).
I'd recommend
Roni for
Rhonda.
Helaina (Greek, meaning "torch", "corposant" or "moon"):
Helah,
Henda,
Hendel (sound similar).
I'd recommend
Helah for Helaina.
Click any of the blue links for more information about these names.
This isn't a surnames site so I'm not sure how much help I can be with the surnames. For
Gabriel, just click the link, and for Gearhart, I'd see
Gerhardt (
Gerard). You could ask about Kahler on the Surnames board (there's a link to it if you click on 'Other Boards' at the top of this board.
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.