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Help[Opinions] Re: Taboo names becoming less... taboo?
in reply to a message by erb816
Cain has such a pretty meaning- acquirance, "for I have acquired a man with God". A shame the character is so negative.
Anyway, about taboo biblical names becoming more common, with the Zionist movement (the secular mainstream thereof) and the state of Israel being founded, a lot of the hebrew language ideologists and mainstream zionists wanted to erase the "exilic jewish" past and create a "new jew" who is hard working and militant, and in a way continue the biblical judean kingdom. As such, a lot of secular zionist children had,along with renewed hebrew names, names that weren't in use (or at least wide use) in the jewish diaspora in the past ~1800 years, some of which were righteous characters, but some were evil, such as: Nimrod, Absalom, Omri, and even Ahab.
There was an even more extreme offshoot of secular hebrew zionism in mandatory palestine called "Canaanism", which wanted to erase judaism and jewish history from the minds of the jewish public entirely, and instead return to a hypothetical pagan past where all the western semitic people spoke hebrew and believed in the same pantheon. As such, they wanted to create a secular hebrew nation-state that spans the whole area from the Euphrates to Sinai, with all the arabs, jews and other nativez merging into a single nation. Obviously, I think it's a stupid, racist idea.
Anyway, said "Canaanites" used taboo names that weren't common among any other group at the time. Names like Cain, Canaan, Abel, and a lot of pagan names from near eastern mythology. A name that started in their sphere but then became common for all israeli jewish women (including religious ones) was Annath, after the ancient Canaanite goddess.
I wouldn't name my kids after evil characters just because it would probably be hard for me to name them after people I don't see fitting.
Anyway, about taboo biblical names becoming more common, with the Zionist movement (the secular mainstream thereof) and the state of Israel being founded, a lot of the hebrew language ideologists and mainstream zionists wanted to erase the "exilic jewish" past and create a "new jew" who is hard working and militant, and in a way continue the biblical judean kingdom. As such, a lot of secular zionist children had,along with renewed hebrew names, names that weren't in use (or at least wide use) in the jewish diaspora in the past ~1800 years, some of which were righteous characters, but some were evil, such as: Nimrod, Absalom, Omri, and even Ahab.
There was an even more extreme offshoot of secular hebrew zionism in mandatory palestine called "Canaanism", which wanted to erase judaism and jewish history from the minds of the jewish public entirely, and instead return to a hypothetical pagan past where all the western semitic people spoke hebrew and believed in the same pantheon. As such, they wanted to create a secular hebrew nation-state that spans the whole area from the Euphrates to Sinai, with all the arabs, jews and other nativez merging into a single nation. Obviously, I think it's a stupid, racist idea.
Anyway, said "Canaanites" used taboo names that weren't common among any other group at the time. Names like Cain, Canaan, Abel, and a lot of pagan names from near eastern mythology. A name that started in their sphere but then became common for all israeli jewish women (including religious ones) was Annath, after the ancient Canaanite goddess.
I wouldn't name my kids after evil characters just because it would probably be hard for me to name them after people I don't see fitting.
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Replies
It's interesting that Abel is considered taboo as well!
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I think the issue with Abel is that it sounds like "able." It's off putting and maybe weirdly ableist sounding?
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Yeah, but I don't imagine that's an issue in Hebrew.
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Interesting, thank you!
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