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Dear Mike,
A friend of mine has the name Rachel and has told me that it has the meaning of "lily of the valley" yet when I look up various sites I can only get "lamb", "ewe", "innocent as a lamb" etc. Could you please tell me if "lily of the valley" is correct?
My thanks
Dominic
A friend of mine has the name Rachel and has told me that it has the meaning of "lily of the valley" yet when I look up various sites I can only get "lamb", "ewe", "innocent as a lamb" etc. Could you please tell me if "lily of the valley" is correct?
My thanks
Dominic
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Replies
Hi. Even though my name is Raquel, it is Spanish for "lamb" or "ewe". However. I too am looking for alternative meanings of my name.
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PriaposLovs is absolutely correct in what he told you about the name "Rachel" -- as well as what he told about the resident Rachel here. ;)
Perhaps I can help to clear up a bit of this name mystery, though, before your friend beats you up (we ewes can be very dangerous) for contradicting her about the meaning of her name. :)
Is your friend of Jewish ancestry? I ask, because the name "Rachel" is a common modern name given to Jewish girl-children who might have been named after an older, Yiddish relative by the name of "Raizel".
The name "Raizel" means "rose" in Yiddish. Sometimes the Yiddish name of "Raizel" is translated into the Hebrew name of "Shoshana" instead of the Hebrew name of "Rachel" -- because "Shoshana" means "a lily of the valley" or "a rose". Jewish children are usually given one secular name (which may or may not be Yiddish) and one Hebrew name which is used for religious purposes -- much the same way that the Roman Catholic Church once required their children to bear at least one name (either first or middle) of a saint. But among the Jewish people, sometimes the religious name given to a child will be a direct translation of the secular name into Hebrew.
Your friend Rachel may have been named for a Raizel somewhere in her family tree, and the family remembered that name of Raizel as being associated with the Hebrew equivalent of "Shoshana", and therefore they told her that her name means "a lily of the valley".
-- Nanaea Rachel
Perhaps I can help to clear up a bit of this name mystery, though, before your friend beats you up (we ewes can be very dangerous) for contradicting her about the meaning of her name. :)
Is your friend of Jewish ancestry? I ask, because the name "Rachel" is a common modern name given to Jewish girl-children who might have been named after an older, Yiddish relative by the name of "Raizel".
The name "Raizel" means "rose" in Yiddish. Sometimes the Yiddish name of "Raizel" is translated into the Hebrew name of "Shoshana" instead of the Hebrew name of "Rachel" -- because "Shoshana" means "a lily of the valley" or "a rose". Jewish children are usually given one secular name (which may or may not be Yiddish) and one Hebrew name which is used for religious purposes -- much the same way that the Roman Catholic Church once required their children to bear at least one name (either first or middle) of a saint. But among the Jewish people, sometimes the religious name given to a child will be a direct translation of the secular name into Hebrew.
Your friend Rachel may have been named for a Raizel somewhere in her family tree, and the family remembered that name of Raizel as being associated with the Hebrew equivalent of "Shoshana", and therefore they told her that her name means "a lily of the valley".
-- Nanaea Rachel
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The meaning of Rachel can be found in the Old Testament. Raiza or Raisa is Russian and Raizel is the diminuitive. Rose in Russian
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I know that the name Rachel means Little Lamb and all Rachel's are not jewish or hebrew or yiddish or whatever. I am a christian and an American born in to America and I am named Rachel not because of someone in my family being named Raizel or whatever it was. In the Bible it is plain Rachel not Raizel or whatever. So broaden your horizon and tell about other theories one of which mine is true.
~ Rachel
~ Rachel
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