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Help[Facts] Re: Jewish Naming Customs, and American Jewry
in reply to a message by Just Jonquil
I love this, thanks for sharing! This tracks with a lot of what I would guess, but also has some cool things I never knew or thought about (like the Dov-Ber thing).
Particularly interesting things for me are the variables related to giving a child a distinctively Jewish name and the perceptions of names. My grandparents and parents have names that aren't very Jewish sounding (though they are still named for people) and my sister and I both have names that are intended to be explicitly Jewish. However, our names might not look that way to others - mine because of multiple origins and her because it is just a biblical name that happens to be pronounced in the Hebrew way. A friend of mine (who is probably best described as either Modern Orthodox or "Conservadox" has 3 kids and 2 have names that seem significantly more Jewish to Jewish people and 1 has a name that is classed here as "Hebrew Post-Biblical."
I am definitely someone who doesn't prioritize a distinctively Jewish name enough to plan for that over other things (although if my partner liked the same modern Hebrew names as I did, we'd probably end up picking one), but it is important for me to pick out a Jewish ritual name and to name for a deceased (or soon to be deceased) loved one.
Particularly interesting things for me are the variables related to giving a child a distinctively Jewish name and the perceptions of names. My grandparents and parents have names that aren't very Jewish sounding (though they are still named for people) and my sister and I both have names that are intended to be explicitly Jewish. However, our names might not look that way to others - mine because of multiple origins and her because it is just a biblical name that happens to be pronounced in the Hebrew way. A friend of mine (who is probably best described as either Modern Orthodox or "Conservadox" has 3 kids and 2 have names that seem significantly more Jewish to Jewish people and 1 has a name that is classed here as "Hebrew Post-Biblical."
I am definitely someone who doesn't prioritize a distinctively Jewish name enough to plan for that over other things (although if my partner liked the same modern Hebrew names as I did, we'd probably end up picking one), but it is important for me to pick out a Jewish ritual name and to name for a deceased (or soon to be deceased) loved one.
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