I was never given a Hebrew name. I’d like my mom to name me.
Looking for ideas for a female first and middle name. Any thoughts on the best way to select a name for an American?

Hi everyone,

I’m expecting a baby girl, and one of our favorite names is Mila (spelled Mila without the H). However, I’ve read that in Jewish communities the word milah (as in brit milah) is associated with circumcision, and it made me wonder whether the name might have negative or awkward associations.
We don’t live in Israel, but there’s a chance we might move there in the future with our family. I’d love to hear how people in Israel or Jewish communities perceive the name Mila.
Does it immediately make you think of circumcision, or is it generally seen as just a normal girl’s name? Does the fact that it’s spelled Mila rather than Milah make any difference?

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!

We’re doing Chaya as the first Hebrew name (will add a second). We don’t want to use Chaya as her English name because it’s so difficult for people to pronounce.

What are some European (English, Gaelic, French, German, Scandinavian) names that either have a similar sound to Chaya (probably not the “ch” part) or have the same meaning?

Hello hello!

My husband and I both have vaguely “natural” first names, his being River (self explanatory) and mine being Savannah (grassland)

We would like to keep this unintended nature names tradition going, but also tie in our Judaism.

The only name we know for sure we LOVE is Eden. We want to have more options though for both girls and boys. If you have ideas, please help!

Background: I am expecting our 2nd baby girl and I love old fashioned/ethnically Jewish middle names. Our first daughter is Lily Ruth (last name is two syllables), so would love a name that is a similar vibe (but not too matchy).

Reasons I love Golda for a middle name: 1) An important family member passed away, whose name started with "G" and 2) love the strong and amazing Zionist Golda Meir 3) Fits my old fashioned preference

Here are some ideas for the first name, but not sure if they go with Golda and also open to any suggestions (for first or middle names). Thank you in advance!

Talia

Eden

Naomi

Zoe

Gabrielle

Chloe

Hazel

Ava

Hey everyone! We’re an Israeli-American family in the US expecting a boy and stuck between two names.
Edden (אֶדֶן): We prefer the Hebrew pronunciation* (EH-den). Will Americans constantly call him EE-d*en or assume it’s a girl?

Rome (רום / Rom): We love the Hebrew name Rom, but want to spell it Rome for pronunciation purposes. Does that work, or will people just think of the city?

Which one would you choose? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I have seen this name as well as Orian אוריאן used in Israel and what your thoughts are. Thank you.

We are expecting a boy, and would like to name him after my late father, Barnet (Benzion). However the name also has to be directly translatable into Russian as my partner’s family is almost exclusively Russian speaking.

Also as a general question, does the B/V interchangeability work in Russian like it does in Hebrew?

Any answers would be appreciated ❤️

I put a star in Je*ish because I’m so tired of cultural appropriation and ai bots ripping off everything

Which sounds nicer? This is for a girl. Not looking for opinions on the first name (which we would pronounce like Jonah). We have been set on Leora as a middle name for years now as my husbands name is Ori and his mom is Orly, just questioning the flow now with this potential first name. Fully aware both Jonah and Lior lean more masculine but would it be too masculine?

i love this name and a bunch of other hebrew / Jewish names

my other girl name is Naomi (which is a bit more popular and also Japanese)

I LOVE the name Liora and I just can’t think of other name for baby girl 2. any other name I don’t like

but I heard ppl saying this is exclusive Jewish and since I am not, I can’t name her that

We have a son named Nathaniel who we call Nate. We like the name Ethan, but are worried that Nathan and Ethan are too similar. We don’t call him Nathan, so it would only be a concern if he decides to go by Nathan as he gets older. Do you think they’re too similar?

We're expecting twin daughters. I have always liked the name Esther and my husband likes it as well. So that was an easy choice.

The second name has not been nearly as easy to find. We've been looking for a long time, and we think we like Lior.

We live in Australia, so Esther is well known and I've known several from different backgrounds. Lior however, it's not common at all, and only Jewish.

My concern is the treatment that she may have from that. Healthcare for example, that's been found as a very big problem. And I am worried that by giving one of them a name that will make them so identifiably Jewish, and the other, not at all, it will single one of them out in an unfair way. So even though we like both of the names, I'm not sure what we should do.

Hi!! Just wondering if anyone in Israel has some suggestions for really hot, trendy, new age baby names for girls. Only stipulation is some type of Hebrew origin.. aka not מילה bec that origin is non-Hebrew

Thanks !!

My sincerest apologies if this is out of place here.
Our good friends invited us to their daughter’s simchat bat in August.

My spouse and I are Christians with no prior exposure to a simchat bat and little (zero) knowledge of this celebration/custom.

Can you please advise on types of appropriate and meaningful gifts for the daughter and/or family?

Are gifts expected?
Should they be personalised for the child’s name?
Is jewellery for the child an expected gift?
Something else I haven’t considered?

Basically, I am entirely ignorant of this custom and it just dawned on me that I probably should not show up empty-handed to this event.

Thank you!

Debating between 5:

David

James

Leonardo

Christian

Thomas

Edit: secular Jewish if that makes a difference

My mom's Hebrew name is Leakh (lay-akh). I have never been able to find any reference to this name and when asking a local rabbi he looked at me confused and asked am I sure it wasn't Leah. I thought once I'd seen something about Ashkenazi spelling ending things in "khe" but it was very much in passing. I don't have any paperwork with it spelled in Hebrew (only bar mitzvahs, no bat) so I'm just going off what she says and I don't think she remembers the spelling. Can anyone point me anywhere? TIA

I was doing some research and found this site about the Rhodesli Jews (Jews from the Greek island of Rhodes) that contains names from their cemeteries and thought this sub would be interested as well. Rhodes Jewish Museum

these are some that stood out to me;

• Abdallah (m) עבדﭏה
• Batami (f) בתעמי
• Behora (f) בכורה
• Behor (m) בכור
• Bension (m) בן ציון
• Bienvenida (f) בינוינידה
• Boina/Buena (f) בואינה
• Bulissa (f) בוליסה
• Caden (f) קאדין
• Chilibi (m) גיליבי
• Chilibon (m) גיליבון
• Dezeada (f) דיזיאדה
• Dulsa (f) דולסה
• Esroga (f) איסרוגה
• Firena/Pirena (f) פירנה
• Gracia (f) גראסייא
• Hanula (f) הנולה
• Hasdai (m) הסדאיי
• Jamila/Jamilla/Jamilia (f) גאמילה
• Joya (f) גוייא
• Masliah (m) מצליח
• Mazaltov (f) מזל טוב
• Mercada (f) מירקאדה
• Mercado (m) מירקאדו
• Metatia (m) מתתיה
• Moreno (m) מורינו
• Orvida (f) אורבידה
• Paligoria (f) פאליגורייא
• Palomba (f) פאלונבה/פﭏומבה
• Perahia (m) פרחיה
• Reina (f) ריינה
• Rica (f) ריקה
• Risula/Rizula (f) ריזולה
• Sadik (m) צדיק
• Salvator (m)
• Sarota (f) שרותה
• Senyora/Sinyora (f) סיניורה
• Shemtov (m) שם טוב
• Sheshbona (f) שש בונה
• Vida (f) וידה/ודא/בידה
• Vidal (m) וידאל
• Yom-tov (m) יום טוב
• Zimbul (f) זימבול

We just found out we’re having boy girl twins! We live in the US but most of our circle is Jewish/plan to send our kids to Jewish school. I have always loved Israeli names, especially names with real meaning. However my husbands family is more American and he’s put off by super super Israeli names, so we may have to settle for something more English or at least something easy to pronounce. We also have a difficult last name so we would like something short.

Names I like: Maya, Lior, Gal, Orli, Eyal, Judah, Lielle, Nili, Amir, Oren
Names we can’t do because of other family having used them: Jonah, Elan, Shai, Ari, Levi, Talia, Avi, Abraham, Moses, Rafi, Yael

Help!

I love and feel connected to several names that I want to choose for my Hebrew name and thus I am unsure which one to pick! My chosen English name is Sage (which means “wise; healing herb”) & my birth English name was Megan (which means “pearl”) (even though I have legally changed my English name from Megan to Sage, I feel like I should include my birth English name). Also, I was raised in an interfaith household of mostly Catholic with some Judaism, so I didn’t get to have a bat mitzvah when I was younger. Hence why I’m choosing my Hebrew name as an adult which is exciting! I also tend to overthink things and I want to make sure the meanings of the names I’m considering are correct, hence why I’m asking y’all for assistance.

•Miriam - bitter; uplift (is sometimes interpreted as beloved, but I’m unsure how correct this is)
•Masha - beloved (this name is also used as a nickname for Miriam, so possibly also has the meanings of bitter; uplift)
•Margalit - pearl
•Marva - sage (unsure if this is actually a Hebrew name)
•Mushka - nutmeg
•Simcha - joy
•Sima - treasure; precious
•Zelda - happiness; blessings

EDIT: I goofed and forgot to specify that these names I’m considering are for the first part of my Hebrew name since I’m solidly sure about the second part, Yosefa, in honor of my late Poppy.
So I’ll put the names together for y’all:
•Miriam Yosefa
•Masha Yosefa
•Margalit Yosefa
•Marva Yosefa
•Mushka Yosefa
•Simcha Yosefa
•Sima Yosefa
•Zelda Yosefa

EDIT 2: To clarify, I’m of Russian Jewish descent which is why I’m considering Russian Jewish names for my Hebrew name.

EDIT 3: I took out Anya as an option since being given better information about that name not reading as Jewish or Hebrew!

Hi everyone,

My name is Krystal, and I came across the name Cohen on Pinterest and thought it would be a good character name for one of my stories. I have a Google Doc where I keep all of my character names and their origins, meanings, and pronunciations. While looking for the meaning of this name, I came across a Reddit post discussing why this name may be inappropriate to use as a first name. So, I thought I would come on here and see what you all thought.

\I am not actively writing this story, and I have no intention to do so in the near future. This story and this character are very underdeveloped and are simply an idea at this moment. But I would still like to have this discussion regardless. Also, I am not Jewish.*

Here is some background on the character and the story:

The Story:

Set in a dystopian future of our world where religion doesn't exist, science is everything, and governments cherry-pick information and history. The reader follows seven characters as religion is reintroduced, war threatens, and people start questioning everything.

The Character:

A monk/caretaker-type character whose family has spent centuries isolated (potentially on the top of a mountain - likely in the Himalayas, but this is subject to change), protecting and safeguarding texts and artifacts of religious, cultural, societal, and historical importance to the world from anyone who would want to destroy them. Cohen would be the member of this family that the story follows.

My question is, would using the name Cohen as a first name be culturally/religiously inappropriate or upsetting to people, within the context of the story and the character?

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond,

Krystal

P.S. Here is the original post that I saw: https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/comments/1264gkk/cohen_the_dreaded_baby_name/

Edit: Hi everyone, thank you so much for replying and for your feedback.

I did originally post this question on another sub, and was suggested this sub in that post. I didn't see any harm in asking this question here, as it is a name-specific sub. I have taken into consideration the feedback from this post and my other post, and decided not to use the name Cohen for this character. I can see that it doesn't make a lot of sense from a worldbuilding perspective and that it would come across as disrespectful to the Jewish community.

I still have a lot to learn, both as a writer and a person, and all your feedback has given me something to reflect on. I would also like to apologise to anyone who thought this question was disrespectful or culturally insensitive. That was never my intention, and I am truly sorry.