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ArchivesRe: Meaning of Rachel
in reply to a message by Dominic Fisher
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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