Religion & Beliefs
Baby Names
By Laurel Snyder / January 25, 2007
Lance? Butch? Mordechai? Help me pick a baby name!
Since I’m knocked up, I find myself thinking a lot about Jewish baby names. But since my yuppie generation has decided to embrace all the cool old fashioned named, I find myself in a tricky spot… because all the good names are being totally overused. Hannah is out. Nathan is out. Just look!
So now I need your help, to point me toward the best Jewish names for boys and girls.
Maybe I’m overly concerned about picking a Jewish name because my husband isn’t Jewish. If we go with a non-Jewish name, I fear they’ll end up feeling like outsiders at Hebrew school. Sometimes I worry I fixate on this too much. I lean toward names like Abraham and Moses. Super-Jew names. My dad likes Gershom for a boy, Shifra for a girl. Is this silly? Should we just call him Giovanni and be done with it?
But at my son’s bris, when I had to think about (and talk about) the meaning of his name, it really hit me that it does mean something to have a cultural name. To be connected to your community through a name. And Jewish biblical names do carry such weight, such meaning. Whether or not you go with a Jewish “regular” name, or you pick two names for your kids, it’s  a very real way of connecting to Judaism:
Jews living in gentile lands have historically taken local names to use when interacting with their gentile neighbors. … The practice of taking local names became so common, in fact, that by the 12th century, the rabbis found it necessary to make a takkanah (rabbinical ruling) requiring Jews to have a Hebrew name!
Hebrew names are used in prayer in and out of synagogue and for other religious rituals. When a person is called up in synagogue for an aliyah (the honor of reciting a blessing over a Torah reading), he is called up by his Hebrew name…
Here’s a FAQ on Jewish baby-naming customs, in case you’re interested. And also a list of Jewish names.
Now, help me pick a name???
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just curious. is micah a similarly a name not historically associated with judiasm?
Hi Laurel,
This is a very present-minded article. I was recently at a bar in Washington, D.C. talking to the step-son-in-law of a congressional representative. He was a non-Jew married to a small r reform hot woman. He said it was hard to think of a name, but once he had one, well! the baby making would begin in haste!
Being of sound mind and body, I suggested Salathiel, an honorific of the son of the the Queen of Sheba meaning "Black King of the Jews". He liked it, paid his tab, stumbled into a taxi, and for all I know, Salathiel may be gestating in a beautiful woman's stomach at this very moment.
Cheers,
John Parman, Interfaith Voices
with the exception of tahl's mother (and what an exception she is) i have never met a girl named "yael" who isn't a totally insane, uptight, horrendous, machiavellian wench. (sorry, yaels-i-don't-yet-know — prove me wrong.)
Wow, that's really interesting. I've never been concerned with the idea that he'd be identifiable to non-Jews as a Jew. Probably because I never was. I'm Laurel, with pink cheeks and blue eyes. I always wanted desperately to be a kinky-haired Rachel with brown eyes and olive skin.
I love Asher too. And Yael is a fave. But hubby said NO to Yael, and a friend of mine has an Asher.
Abel? Eh?
Why is nobody ever named Abel? It's not like it's Cain.
and other names that are easy to pronounce, have a nice meaning, and aren’t historically associated with Judaism. Maybe it is my paranoia, but I don’t want someone to necessarily be able to judge my kid as Jewish by their name. But I DO want the name to be recognizeable to other Jews. Sort of a like a secret code. For instance Haskell, Galit, Aliza, Shira, Dara, Yael, Eitan, and the list goes on.
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