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HelpRe: Jewish Names
in reply to a message by Baby Blue
You'd best steer clear of Hebrew names that were used only in the Yishuv (interwar Palestine) by Zionist pioneers and names invented for use in the new state of Israel, because they would be anachronistic. Aviv, Aviva, Ilan, Ilana, Alon, Nitza, Aliza, Yaffa (translates Shayna) Zita, Doron, Gilad are among such names.
You are safer sticking with Biblical or Yiddish names. My favourites include Sheine and Sheindel (that spelling would have been more usual at that time than Shaina, Shaindel, Shayna, Shayndel), Deborah, Esther,Judith,Rachel, Rebecca, Miriam, Naomi, Penina, Asher, Benjamin, Ephraim, Hirsch, Judah, Isaac, Israel, Moses, Samuel, Velvel (Wolf), Zalman (Solomon). (If I were you, I'd resist the temptation to use such the Hebrew forms Dvora, Yehudit, Rahel, Rivka, because they would have been the synagogue names rather than the registered names at that period, especially in the case of an intermarried family). Magdalena for the mother's mn seems inauthentic - rather too Catholic. I suppose it depends on whether the Englishman met her in Britain or elsewhere. I don't think an English Jew would have had that mn.
(What people might not realise is that Jews usually name after relatives, but not living relatives in the case of the Ashkenazim).
You are safer sticking with Biblical or Yiddish names. My favourites include Sheine and Sheindel (that spelling would have been more usual at that time than Shaina, Shaindel, Shayna, Shayndel), Deborah, Esther,Judith,Rachel, Rebecca, Miriam, Naomi, Penina, Asher, Benjamin, Ephraim, Hirsch, Judah, Isaac, Israel, Moses, Samuel, Velvel (Wolf), Zalman (Solomon). (If I were you, I'd resist the temptation to use such the Hebrew forms Dvora, Yehudit, Rahel, Rivka, because they would have been the synagogue names rather than the registered names at that period, especially in the case of an intermarried family). Magdalena for the mother's mn seems inauthentic - rather too Catholic. I suppose it depends on whether the Englishman met her in Britain or elsewhere. I don't think an English Jew would have had that mn.
(What people might not realise is that Jews usually name after relatives, but not living relatives in the case of the Ashkenazim).
This message was edited 6/25/2008, 1:43 PM
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