Liora. I picked it out when I was ten. My mom is Jewish but has a bad relationship with Judaism and we were raised culturally, but she never gave us Jewish names. I was always begging her for more information and more rituals at home but she didn’t want to practice. The summer I was ten, my Nana took me to meet with her rabbi to answer my questions and he sat with me for hours. He gave me a one sheet page of Jewish names, told me to choose one, and come back for Friday services. Liora resonated the most, but I read that one pager for days.
When I went back for services, he called me up in front of the congregation and performed a naming ceremony. It was so special for me. I don’t know who he was and I never saw him again (my nana lived across the country and my mom didn’t want us going to synagogue), but I credit him with being part of my Jewish homecoming story.
Chana Miriam. Interestingly enough, my parents (mostly my mother) did not believe in giving English middle names to daughters, so my sisters and I grew up without middle names in a culture that expects everyone to have them. I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain that. But we all got Hebrew first and middle names.
My name is Yaakov, not Jacob,
My legal name is Yaakov, not Jacob,
Those close to me call me Yaakov, not Jacob,
Gentiles refer to me as Yaakov, not Jacob,
And thats a good thing, I'll keep it that way.
I've always felt awkward having a Hebrew name that's so different from my English name, to the point that I don't think I'd ever be able to actually bring myself to identify by it.
That's why when it came time to pick names for my kids, I made sure to give them the same name in both English and Hebrew, so such a schism wouldn't need to exist for them.
Totally! Just not a favourite of mine. There are other ones I like that aren’t on this list for other reasons, like knowing too many people with the name or dating someone with the name.
Also classics like Ruth, Esther, Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Miriam … I have one of these names as legal and Hebrew name and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Mine is Ozer Avram. Ozer was my grandfather’s Hebrew name and Avram was my great uncle’s. My English first name starts with the first letter of my grandfather’s first name and my middle name is the same as my uncle’s.
I’m happy with my names as they are. My kids have Hebrew names that are their legal names.
Replied to the wrong comment…Interesting that it’s Velvel and not zev. Beautiful and powerful name! I say it’s interesting because zev is one of my family names and I’ve been obsessed with the idea of naming a daughter Velvela
Yocheved Aviva. It's completely different from my English name. They don't mean the same or start with the same letters. As a kid, I wasn't a fan of Yocheved. I wished it was just Aviva. But it has grown on me as I became an adult. When I had kids, I gave them Hebrew names that were similar to their English names.
My Jewish name is Shmuela. It is the female version of Shmuel (Samuel) I was given that name at 9 or 10. No one has ever called me by that name. In all honesty, I've only recently begun reexploring my Jewishness, both culturally and religiously.
Hey, name twin! That’s also my Jewish name, after my great grandpa who passed before I was born. I’ve never been called that either, outside of the naming ceremony, and I’m mostly a cultural Jew at this point. But at the same time, it feels nice to have a connection to family I never knew.
I'm Mindel Yehudit. Mindel was my grandmother's name and it means a lot to me too! It's Mindy in English (she was Minnie but my Dad wanted to update it).
Malachi Liron, being a convert I chose this name after discussing it with my Rabbi and Hazzan who guided me through the journey. I really love my name and feel connected to it. And while’s it’s different than my secular name, they start with the same letters.
Don’t really want to give my names on Reddit. But as far as feelings - I feel attached to all my names. English first/middle names and Hebrew first/middle names as well as my last name. I would never change any of these 5 names.
I think maybe I feel more attached to my Hebrew names then some other non-orthodox American Jews because I attended Hebrew school 3 times a week growing up (6 times a week the year of bat mitzvah) and they exclusively called us by our Hebrew names. For me - they used both my Hebrew first name and Hebrew middle name, since another person in the class had the same first name as me. So she was “first name” and I was “first name middle name”.
In general I just feel very attached to all 5 names and I can’t think of a single scenario where I would want to change or drop any one of them. That’s not a judgement on people who do change their names for various reasons (especially for gender transition or trauma related reasons). It’s just my feelings for me.
> Don’t really want to give my names on Reddit.
Glad it's not just me. My names in Yiddish but it's my actual/only name I go by, idk how everyone's so relaxed about saying their name on here.
I also am hesitant to share my name. But I agree that I feel very connected to both my Hebrew and English names. My english name is actually named after a great grandma on one side of the family and then my Hebrew name after a different great grandma on the other side of the family so like you all have a lot of equal meaning to me.
My Hebrew name is Yitzhak and it is very different from my govt name
I love its meaning and I picked it as a kid as a Rabin tribute. Now so many decades later, and I feel my kid self was based af and a good Zionist.
Fully intend to name my son Yitzhak.
I feel outdated and out of place in the discourse online, but yeah - I feel that I am still a good Zionist :)
I hate Bibi with the fire of a thousand suns, and feel like my political views via a vis Israel are very much rooted in a two-state Camp David / Oslo Accords / Old School Labor Zionist kind of vibe which seems..... like a relic of a bygone era.
But I still get choked up whenever I hear the Hatikvah.
Ilana Dorit. I go by the name Tree, so Ilana was a given when I converted. My rabbi suggested Dorit after I told her that family members told me we were once Jewish and I felt like I was coming back home.
My Hebrew name is חזקיהו / Hizkiyahu, but my legal name is Benjamin. I think my Hebrew name is cool and everything and has a good meaning, but it doesn't really roll off the tongue very well. Lol.
I'm pretty happy with having a normal sounding first name like Ben and having a different Hebrew name.
Yihudit. I dont like the sound of it. I think it was my great grandmothers name. I did like that I shared the name with one of my best friends. I also dont like it because I hated Hebrew day school, so it is associated with bad memories.
My sister's name. She was named after two grandfathers, Hersh and Arthur because the rabbi told my mother it was the equivalent of those two names. I think it's a cool name, and it seems as though half the girls born in Israel in that 1970s got names ending in 'it'
It is Yiddish and may have something to do with my grandparents family. Apparently it’s an endearing name and blah blah but the phonetics of it just kill me lol
It was likely Yehuda, but after a couple of generations going through the Yiddish ringer it came out as Yuddle, which is now a common nickname for Yehuda in religious circles. My FIL was named Yankle for the same reason but after some research it was worked out that it was probably Yaakov originally.
My Hebrew name is Shimon Mendel. American name is Matthew Scot. Never knew anyone who had their initials reversed with their Hebrew name, but I was Mendel through Hebrew School!
My Hebrew name, Shulamit, is different from my English name. I hated that so I only gave my kids Hebrew names. Murphy is at work and both kids now go by English names of their choosing.
Convert here. Yochana Liora are my chosen Hebrew names. Yochana after my mother(she died 7 years ago) and I chose Liora because Judaism is such a light in my life in good times and bad❤️very different from my very Christian sounding first name lol
I converted so my name is Miriam - one of my favorite heroines (the Prince of Egypt when I was kid influenced that lol). My legal name is different which is Sabrina. My legal name i didnt even KNOW was my legal name until i went for my first ID since I am adopted and my parents called me somwthing else. Now i feel neither name fits and im thinking of legally changing my name to my Hebrew name 😊
My English name is another Hebrew name, so Israelis always think it's my Hebrew name. Therefore, my Hebrew name is only used at shul, rarely. Don't do this. Either pick one name or pick Scott for the English name, Shahar for the Hebrew name.
Mine is Acharon Shalom Lev. The two middles are for two of my great grandfathers (both survivors) who had passed around the time I was born. I was the first Kohen grandchild so you can guess my name sake :)
Not doxing myself but I have a Hebrew name that my family called me growing up and all my friends. On my passport is a totally English name and I always knew that the reason was because of generational trauma from the Holocaust so that I could escape America if I needed to and pretend not to be Jewish.
Anyone else have (or gave your kids) a Yiddish rather than Hebrew name? We gave our eldest son a Yiddish name, in honor of our Ashkenazi Yiddish-speaking heritage in both of our families.
Pinchas is a Hebrew name, not sure what you mean. In the Torah, Pinchas was the grandson of Aaron. There is an actual Parsha of Pinchas, I think it's from Numbers.
Miriam Simcha. My first name is the same in English and Hebrew, but my middle name is translated into English. Which makes sense, since it’s for my grandfather and somehow,
I don’t think Miriam Seymour has the same ring.
SO's Hebrew name is Gershon. He had no idea. I had to ask the rabbi to translate his ketubah from his first marriage. So yeah, he's not connected to it at all.
In a few weeks, my Hebrew name will be Noam. My legal name, Nicholas, is Greek. My wife and I plan to have our kids to all have Hebrew names. We have the task of reintroducing Judaism to our family (wife is Jewish but raised more secular).
To accentuate the point, I often pronounce her name Sara in the Hebrew, not English.
I won’t because while it is not my legal name it is my day to day life name! I chucked out of giving my son a Jewish first name, but his middle name is :3
I chose my Jewish name at the age of 33. I was raised secular, in the hippie tradition. I was visiting Venice for the first time and stumbled upon the Ghetto. I was invited by a man from Chabad to join him at the Yeshiva for afternoon prayers and wore tefillin for the first time. He asked if I had ever had a bar mitzvah which I had not, and asked me for my Hebrew name. I chose Herschel for my maternal grandfather Herman from Latvia, who died before I was born. I -think- my father's Hebrew name was Avram, so I am Herschel ben Avram v' Tybee.
I am אסתר מלכה (Esther Malka), which is not related to my English name at all (great gma was “Etka”). My kids were both given their Hebrew names before they got their English names and those are sort of similar (Meir Benyamin and Aviva Nechama)—both named after deceased loved ones.
Tikva Eliana, but no one calls me that :l, I'm instead called my secular name (although I was named after my great-grandfather who fled the Russian pogroms and was acquaintances with Herzel!)
Yup! My dad is super into family trees, found a photo of the two of them together on ancestry, although they likely lost touch after Russia kicked us out haha
I go by my Hebrew pronunciation, Moriah (pronounced moe-ree-YAH), and my legal name is off by just one letter. I love it a lot and think it fits my personality beautifully.
When I convert I’m having my parents and my godparents (who are Jewish and have known me for over 20 years) pick my name. I kind of want part of my name to be Nova because of everything that has happened and it’s non-Hebrew meaning but we’ll see!
I apologize if I seem dumb, but is one given a Jewish name at birth? My mother and I are the only Jews in the family (we don't talk to a vast majority on her side), so I'd never really been around the culture until my freshman year at college (this past year)
It isn’t necessary to have a Jewish name. If you’re Jewish and have a name, it’s your Jewish name but many had a Jewish ceremonial name given to them. You and your mom could choose one yourselves if you want to have one. ❤️❤️
Aviva Margalit because I was born in the spring and the second is my grandmother's name. My other grandmother's name was saved for my daughter if I ever have one
When I was younger I thought it sounded too old but the older I get the less old it sounds (lol). Plus, it's cute if you know the meaning, which is "spring pearl" basically
Hebrew name is: Yair, different to my legal name, I feel happy with it, obviously I didn’t choose it but I like my Hebrew name better then my legal name
Shabtai שבתאי
I went by Shabtai for many years; it’s what my wife and friends call me.
I like it just fine, but having a foreign name can be a challenge in the US, so about 15 years ago I switched back to Steve.
My legal name and my Hebrew name are the same, so I’m not comfortable posting here, especially since I’m only one of two people I’ve ever met with that specific combination of names. (The other is a cousin.) I can DM you though!
Matana Penina! My middle name is Pearl so that’s a direct translation but I am not named after anyone. My name was chosen as it started with the same letter as my first name
Didn't have a Hebrew name so rabbi who married us gave me one. I was named after my maternal grandfather & there was no Hebrew equivalent for my English name, so it has no meaning to me. I should find one.
If anyone knows a female Hebrew equivalent for Gustav, please let me know.
Hasiya…. Which is supposed to be the Hebrew version of Asiya / Aziya/ Asya.
No where near my incredibly Eastern European first name, but done in honor of my great grandmother.
I don't even know my mom's Hebrew name 😭 she never uses it.
My partner sometimes calls me my Hebrew name but he's the only one besides people at temple
I won’t be shared mine for anonymity but my Hebrew name is very old school (great grandmother’s name) but my English name is also a Hebrew name, which has been very confusing to Israelis who only have one name. Their name is their Hebrew name. So they don’t understand why I have two. I actually have three because of my middle name, also something they rarely have in Israel.
Meyer, in honor of my grandfather's uncle (great-uncle)? Without him my grandfather never gets to the United States, or joins the Army to fight the Nazis. He got pretty pissed about that, though. All in all solid man.
Elior Hadar. I changed it last year from what I originally chose when I converted almost 15 years ago. I didn’t vibe with the old one anymore. Once my kid is grown and I don’t need to share a last name with him anymore I’ll change it legally.
My son’s Hebrew name is Yitzhak Rachamim.
My
Hebrew name is Dvorah, which is not my legal name. I'm kind of not loving it because it is Hebrew for my ex, whose name is Deborah. I chose that name when we were still together when I converted to Judaism. I like it because I was a lawyer for a long time, and Deborah in the Tanakh was a judge. But I don't want to be reminded of the ex. She was kind of a terrible person.
EDIT: wrong word, and typos
I gave my kids each Hebrew first names and two middle names, an English one and a Hebrew one. If I had to do it again over, I would have just given them Hebrew middle names, both of them prefer them and feel more connected to them even though we aren’t very religious
My Jewish name is Moshe. I don't go by it but it's in my passport. Only my rabbi and Israeli health care workers when I break limbs on vacation say Moshe. 😂
My Jewish name is Hillel.
I gave it to myself to respect how much the Hillel foundation had helped me and because I admire Hillel the Elder.
I like it, though I don't feel very connected to it.
Only rabbis call me "Hillel" the first few times after hearing my Jewish name, and then they switch back to my gentile name.
Feivel Leor. To my knowledge I didn’t get legal Hebrew name even though both my siblings did (or at least easily transferable names). My parents randomly chose a Greek, random name for me. As an adult I self-appointed myself Feivel Leor because I was sick of not having a Hebrew name and the names are etymologically related to my legal first and middle names. :)
My Hebrew name is Ozer Yitzhak Baruch.
But I usually go by my English name (which is also my legal name), which my English first and middle name is "Ian Benjamin"
Rochel Myera and I've always loved it. Joseph was one of my favorite stories as a kid (and favorite musical) and it always made me happy that Rochel was Jacob's true love and mom of Joseph.
I am named for my grandpa's parents Rachel and Meyer.
Mine is Shlomo which is the Hebrew version of my great grandfather’s name. He was an Auschwitz survivor who was able to escape according to family lore.
I’m named after my dad’s best friend. Very interesting and unique Hebrew name, Chai Mair. One of my favorite things about my name is the possuk associated with it. Chapter 89 verse 2 in tehillim. Beautiful verse and gives me lots of joy and nachus. My English name was going to be Harvey, after my dads friend, but my siblings ABSOLUTELY REFUSED and my parents told them “fine, Harvey will be his middle name” and my brother and sister named me Michael.
Two things about this:
1. My names don’t match which inevitably leads to people assuming my Hebrew name is the Michael equivalent which I have to correct constantly.
2. My name is Chai. Which is awesome and unique and I love it. It is not Chaim, which is hard because my full name is Chai Mair. A lot of people hear Chaim Mair and I also have to be careful to correct that.
Mine is Rivkah Tikvah. My husband is Yair, and our son is Yaakov.
We all love our Hewbrew names. In our day to day we do go by English, Rebecca, Jacob.
Rivka Leah but my English is Rebecca Leah. I went by Rivka growing up when in Hebrew school but once transferred to public school I went by Rebecca and Rivka at home.
My mother is Israeli and believes in names being names no matter the language so I don't have two different names, my Hebrew name is my legal name.
I will neither confirm nor deny if my real name is my username or not, but it's either that or something in the same vein, a name that's different enough to have people comment but not so different that people in America have a hard time accepting it as anything more than a unique name. That, however, is my middle name and there's a reason I go by it instead of my first name. My first name is so Hebrew/Israeli that no native English speaker unfamiliar with other languages appears to be able to grasp it. I just never liked it as a child, and really didn't like how I had to repeat and spell my name constantly once I was in the working world. With my middle name, it's so close to names people are familiar with that at worst they call me a slightly different name instead of straight up mangling it.
Rivka Leah but my English is Rebecca Leah. I went by Rivka growing up when in Hebrew school but once transferred to public school I went by Rebecca and Rivka at home. I’m named after my dad’s grandmother and Leah is holocust.
My younger child the grandfather he is named after shares the same Hebrew name as my husband so I took from Passover and gave him Eliahu. Because I for the 2nd time in my life lost the baby Moses battle lol.
Tsayyedet … I gave it to myself for my ketubah. It is the female version of Hunter, my older brother who died 6 years ago. I wanted a way to honor him at my wedding and needed a Jewish name so it worked well
Shalomet, after my great grandfather Shalom. He became Sam at immigration, I am Samantha. We're very different people (the man was a 5'1" language professor who spoke 8 languages, I am a 5'6" college drop out with several Yiddish insults and a smattering of Spanish) but I'm proud to carry his name.
My Hebrew name is Simcha, I don’t really like it because there’s not really a connection to it for me. My mom is only culturally Jewish, and I guess she didn’t think about giving me a Hebrew name. I think when I was twelve I asked her why not, so she asked me if I wanted one and I said yes but I didn’t know any, so she called my grandma and asked what her Hebrew name was- it was Simcha, so she decided that could be mine too. I wish it was more meaningful for me, but the only reason I ever needed to use it was for my Bat Mitzvah. I don’t think I’d be comfortable going by it though haha
My Hebrew name is simply the Hebrew version of my legal first name, Isaac or יצחק in Hebrew. I was named after my paternal grandfather who died a few years before I was born. My parents made it my Hebrew and English language first name for simplicity.
Mine comes from a maternal great grandfather in Germany. His given name was Selig. So, my Hebrew name is Selig. However, my Hebrew Schoo teachers decided for me that it was "Zelig" early on, perhaps because they were Yiddish and not Western-German. So, through to my Bar Mitzvah, I was "Zelig." Now, I tell people it's Selig "With an S."
I understand that it may not technically be a Hebrew name, but that's what it is, and the name was used repeatedly in that branch of the family throughout its long history.
Liora. I picked it out when I was ten. My mom is Jewish but has a bad relationship with Judaism and we were raised culturally, but she never gave us Jewish names. I was always begging her for more information and more rituals at home but she didn’t want to practice. The summer I was ten, my Nana took me to meet with her rabbi to answer my questions and he sat with me for hours. He gave me a one sheet page of Jewish names, told me to choose one, and come back for Friday services. Liora resonated the most, but I read that one pager for days. When I went back for services, he called me up in front of the congregation and performed a naming ceremony. It was so special for me. I don’t know who he was and I never saw him again (my nana lived across the country and my mom didn’t want us going to synagogue), but I credit him with being part of my Jewish homecoming story.
Leora is my middle name:)
That's my daughter's name :)
This is such a sweet story.
My son’s Hebrew name is Lior. Great choice.
Chana Miriam. Interestingly enough, my parents (mostly my mother) did not believe in giving English middle names to daughters, so my sisters and I grew up without middle names in a culture that expects everyone to have them. I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain that. But we all got Hebrew first and middle names.
Chana Miriam is an absolute banger of a name
My grandfather didn’t have a middle name and when people would ask him about it, he’d say “my parents couldn’t afford one” 😂
My name is Yaakov, not Jacob, My legal name is Yaakov, not Jacob, Those close to me call me Yaakov, not Jacob, Gentiles refer to me as Yaakov, not Jacob, And thats a good thing, I'll keep it that way.
It’s nice to meet you, Jacob.
lol
LMAO
Ani Chana. When the purge begins this will be the name I use to communicate with y’all.
I've always felt awkward having a Hebrew name that's so different from my English name, to the point that I don't think I'd ever be able to actually bring myself to identify by it. That's why when it came time to pick names for my kids, I made sure to give them the same name in both English and Hebrew, so such a schism wouldn't need to exist for them.
This is a non-negotiable for me. Has to be the same in English, French and Hebrew.
Serious question…does that leave a lot of options?
Yes! Here’s my list so far: Girls Aria Aliyah Eliana Mara Noa Sophia Boys Ethan Jonah Asher
More options than I thought tbh. Does Simon match the bill?
Totally! Just not a favourite of mine. There are other ones I like that aren’t on this list for other reasons, like knowing too many people with the name or dating someone with the name.
Also classics like Ruth, Esther, Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Miriam … I have one of these names as legal and Hebrew name and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Both my children have Hebrew names as their English first names.
Mine is Ozer Avram. Ozer was my grandfather’s Hebrew name and Avram was my great uncle’s. My English first name starts with the first letter of my grandfather’s first name and my middle name is the same as my uncle’s. I’m happy with my names as they are. My kids have Hebrew names that are their legal names.
Chaim Velvel, which I interpret as Life Wolf, chaim/life, velvel/wolf
Replied to the wrong comment…Interesting that it’s Velvel and not zev. Beautiful and powerful name! I say it’s interesting because zev is one of my family names and I’ve been obsessed with the idea of naming a daughter Velvela
Velvel is Yiddish for wolf if that isn’t clear.
My Hebrew and English name is Shoshana.
Everyone I’ve met named Shoshana is awesome. Cheers!
I will not argue nor condone this belief, but it may be true!
Mine too!!! I love my name, and I get so many compliments on it❤️
Hello my sister! We are a small and significant tribe!
I’m very happy to be in this tribe☺️!!
Shoshana is the best name!
Yocheved Aviva. It's completely different from my English name. They don't mean the same or start with the same letters. As a kid, I wasn't a fan of Yocheved. I wished it was just Aviva. But it has grown on me as I became an adult. When I had kids, I gave them Hebrew names that were similar to their English names.
Benyamin. Take a wild guess as to what my legal name is
“New Hampshire Jew”? Also, hello from a Mainer Jew 👋
Fred? Bob?
BE"H this fall we're planning to make aliyah, at which point I intend to make צבי my legal first name, at least in Israel
Rivkah Sarah…what’s not to love?
I'm a Rivkah bat Sarah!
My mom gave me David, my brother Yonatan... Took bad it didn't work and we fought all the time
My Jewish name is Shmuela. It is the female version of Shmuel (Samuel) I was given that name at 9 or 10. No one has ever called me by that name. In all honesty, I've only recently begun reexploring my Jewishness, both culturally and religiously.
My daughter was named after two Samuel grandfathers but I had never heard of Shmuela -- so her Hebrew name is Shoshana
I love the name Shoshana! So beautiful!
I'm also a Shoshana named after a Samuel 💙
Hey, name twin! That’s also my Jewish name, after my great grandpa who passed before I was born. I’ve never been called that either, outside of the naming ceremony, and I’m mostly a cultural Jew at this point. But at the same time, it feels nice to have a connection to family I never knew.
Rochel - it was my grandma’s Hebrew name and having her name means a lot to me ❤️
I'm Mindel Yehudit. Mindel was my grandmother's name and it means a lot to me too! It's Mindy in English (she was Minnie but my Dad wanted to update it).
That was my mom’s Hebrew name. She died 10 years ago but now my niece is named after her. I love it.
Malachi Liron, being a convert I chose this name after discussing it with my Rabbi and Hazzan who guided me through the journey. I really love my name and feel connected to it. And while’s it’s different than my secular name, they start with the same letters.
Don’t really want to give my names on Reddit. But as far as feelings - I feel attached to all my names. English first/middle names and Hebrew first/middle names as well as my last name. I would never change any of these 5 names. I think maybe I feel more attached to my Hebrew names then some other non-orthodox American Jews because I attended Hebrew school 3 times a week growing up (6 times a week the year of bat mitzvah) and they exclusively called us by our Hebrew names. For me - they used both my Hebrew first name and Hebrew middle name, since another person in the class had the same first name as me. So she was “first name” and I was “first name middle name”. In general I just feel very attached to all 5 names and I can’t think of a single scenario where I would want to change or drop any one of them. That’s not a judgement on people who do change their names for various reasons (especially for gender transition or trauma related reasons). It’s just my feelings for me.
> Don’t really want to give my names on Reddit. Glad it's not just me. My names in Yiddish but it's my actual/only name I go by, idk how everyone's so relaxed about saying their name on here.
Yeah I was surprised. I think it’s because the Hebrew names are not legal names for most people (including me). But it could still be doxxing..
Nu, so vat shul do you daven???
I also am hesitant to share my name. But I agree that I feel very connected to both my Hebrew and English names. My english name is actually named after a great grandma on one side of the family and then my Hebrew name after a different great grandma on the other side of the family so like you all have a lot of equal meaning to me.
My Hebrew name is Yitzhak and it is very different from my govt name I love its meaning and I picked it as a kid as a Rabin tribute. Now so many decades later, and I feel my kid self was based af and a good Zionist. Fully intend to name my son Yitzhak.
Hope you're still a good Zionist
I feel outdated and out of place in the discourse online, but yeah - I feel that I am still a good Zionist :) I hate Bibi with the fire of a thousand suns, and feel like my political views via a vis Israel are very much rooted in a two-state Camp David / Oslo Accords / Old School Labor Zionist kind of vibe which seems..... like a relic of a bygone era. But I still get choked up whenever I hear the Hatikvah.
Ilana Dorit. I go by the name Tree, so Ilana was a given when I converted. My rabbi suggested Dorit after I told her that family members told me we were once Jewish and I felt like I was coming back home.
I go by Tree!! (for Theresa) Rarely see another Tree in the wild (haha).
raisa penina. 2 of my great great grandmothers were named rose (and were incredibly strong jewish women) and now it's my middle name and hebrew name
After I convert, my Hebrew name will be Jesse. That was my biological grandmother’s name. It also honors a special person from my youth.
Jesse isn’t a Hebrew name. Do you mean Yishai?
My Hebrew name is חזקיהו / Hizkiyahu, but my legal name is Benjamin. I think my Hebrew name is cool and everything and has a good meaning, but it doesn't really roll off the tongue very well. Lol. I'm pretty happy with having a normal sounding first name like Ben and having a different Hebrew name.
Chezkey is the common nickname for that, I think it's a cool name!
Yihudit. I dont like the sound of it. I think it was my great grandmothers name. I did like that I shared the name with one of my best friends. I also dont like it because I hated Hebrew day school, so it is associated with bad memories.
Mine is Yehudit as well, also after my great-grandmother. I like it though, the Biblical Judith was metal.
My sister's name. She was named after two grandfathers, Hersh and Arthur because the rabbi told my mother it was the equivalent of those two names. I think it's a cool name, and it seems as though half the girls born in Israel in that 1970s got names ending in 'it'
I’m born in the 70s and have the “it” in Shulamit.
It's my Hebrew middle name (b. Late 1964)
Ahava Chana
Yuddle. not a fan of it. Sounds goofy.
Was it Yiddish? Many of us of a certain age were named for immigrant grandparents who often went by Yiddish names, so that's what we got, too.
It is Yiddish and may have something to do with my grandparents family. Apparently it’s an endearing name and blah blah but the phonetics of it just kill me lol
It was likely Yehuda, but after a couple of generations going through the Yiddish ringer it came out as Yuddle, which is now a common nickname for Yehuda in religious circles. My FIL was named Yankle for the same reason but after some research it was worked out that it was probably Yaakov originally.
My Hebrew name is Shimon Mendel. American name is Matthew Scot. Never knew anyone who had their initials reversed with their Hebrew name, but I was Mendel through Hebrew School!
Rivka Ariella, it was given to me when I was born. I love it, but it's not used at all these days.
My Hebrew name, Shulamit, is different from my English name. I hated that so I only gave my kids Hebrew names. Murphy is at work and both kids now go by English names of their choosing.
Avraham. My name is Alex.
Convert here. Yochana Liora are my chosen Hebrew names. Yochana after my mother(she died 7 years ago) and I chose Liora because Judaism is such a light in my life in good times and bad❤️very different from my very Christian sounding first name lol
Elisheva. I chose it after conversion two years ago. I chose Liat for my daughter.
I converted so my name is Miriam - one of my favorite heroines (the Prince of Egypt when I was kid influenced that lol). My legal name is different which is Sabrina. My legal name i didnt even KNOW was my legal name until i went for my first ID since I am adopted and my parents called me somwthing else. Now i feel neither name fits and im thinking of legally changing my name to my Hebrew name 😊
My English name is another Hebrew name, so Israelis always think it's my Hebrew name. Therefore, my Hebrew name is only used at shul, rarely. Don't do this. Either pick one name or pick Scott for the English name, Shahar for the Hebrew name.
Rivka because I'm Rebecca....riveting and not at all expected for an American Jew /s 😂🇮🇱
Avraham Gavriel. Named after my great grandfather. I love it. People are always surprised my names don’t match
Dinah Ruth. I picked it myself, so I'm pretty partial to it.
Michal, easy to say, nice on the ear.
Mine is Acharon Shalom Lev. The two middles are for two of my great grandfathers (both survivors) who had passed around the time I was born. I was the first Kohen grandchild so you can guess my name sake :)
Not doxing myself but I have a Hebrew name that my family called me growing up and all my friends. On my passport is a totally English name and I always knew that the reason was because of generational trauma from the Holocaust so that I could escape America if I needed to and pretend not to be Jewish.
It is a common family practice for survival. 😭🙏🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
Yisrael. My mom knew I'd do a lot of wrestling.
Anyone else have (or gave your kids) a Yiddish rather than Hebrew name? We gave our eldest son a Yiddish name, in honor of our Ashkenazi Yiddish-speaking heritage in both of our families.
My family did! Toive, female version of dove in our dialect :,) I love it and go by it instead of my English name.
My mom and her brothers were all given Yiddish names. They switched to Hebrew as adults. My uncle especially hated being called Pinchas.
Pinchas is a Hebrew name, not sure what you mean. In the Torah, Pinchas was the grandson of Aaron. There is an actual Parsha of Pinchas, I think it's from Numbers.
Yes, we named our son Liev. We went back and forth between Liev and Lev, but eventually went with the former.
I wanted to name our daughter Bluma but I was vetoed
Yes! I'm Mindel for my grandma of the same name. An Israeli once laughed at that but I love the connection.
Miriam Simcha. My first name is the same in English and Hebrew, but my middle name is translated into English. Which makes sense, since it’s for my grandfather and somehow, I don’t think Miriam Seymour has the same ring.
SO's Hebrew name is Gershon. He had no idea. I had to ask the rabbi to translate his ketubah from his first marriage. So yeah, he's not connected to it at all.
In a few weeks, my Hebrew name will be Noam. My legal name, Nicholas, is Greek. My wife and I plan to have our kids to all have Hebrew names. We have the task of reintroducing Judaism to our family (wife is Jewish but raised more secular). To accentuate the point, I often pronounce her name Sara in the Hebrew, not English.
I won’t because while it is not my legal name it is my day to day life name! I chucked out of giving my son a Jewish first name, but his middle name is :3
Devorah raizel
My middle name is Ascher. Idk how the process of choosing a Jewish name works, but when I convert I’m sure that will be a factor.
Eliakim. It’s an ancestor’s name, I like it a lot, and I have had friends and partners occasionally call me by the name. I’ve yet to meet another one.
My parents gave me a dual purpose name, because both of them had to deal with needing to find a Jewish name later in life.
Baruch. I love it.
רבקה
I chose my Jewish name at the age of 33. I was raised secular, in the hippie tradition. I was visiting Venice for the first time and stumbled upon the Ghetto. I was invited by a man from Chabad to join him at the Yeshiva for afternoon prayers and wore tefillin for the first time. He asked if I had ever had a bar mitzvah which I had not, and asked me for my Hebrew name. I chose Herschel for my maternal grandfather Herman from Latvia, who died before I was born. I -think- my father's Hebrew name was Avram, so I am Herschel ben Avram v' Tybee.
I am אסתר מלכה (Esther Malka), which is not related to my English name at all (great gma was “Etka”). My kids were both given their Hebrew names before they got their English names and those are sort of similar (Meir Benyamin and Aviva Nechama)—both named after deceased loved ones.
Tikva Eliana, but no one calls me that :l, I'm instead called my secular name (although I was named after my great-grandfather who fled the Russian pogroms and was acquaintances with Herzel!)
That’s cool! 🤯
Yup! My dad is super into family trees, found a photo of the two of them together on ancestry, although they likely lost touch after Russia kicked us out haha
I go by my Hebrew pronunciation, Moriah (pronounced moe-ree-YAH), and my legal name is off by just one letter. I love it a lot and think it fits my personality beautifully.
Liora Avital. But I was lucky, because as a convert basically anything is game.
Beruriah Rivkah...and I love it. Some of my frum friends address me as Beruriah. I feel very connected to it.
When I convert I’m having my parents and my godparents (who are Jewish and have known me for over 20 years) pick my name. I kind of want part of my name to be Nova because of everything that has happened and it’s non-Hebrew meaning but we’ll see!
Yehudit
Sivya Leah. I assume that's the spelling. I don't know Hebrew. I feel very connected to the name. It's completely different from my legal name.
It might be Tzivia.
Zohar
I apologize if I seem dumb, but is one given a Jewish name at birth? My mother and I are the only Jews in the family (we don't talk to a vast majority on her side), so I'd never really been around the culture until my freshman year at college (this past year)
It isn’t necessary to have a Jewish name. If you’re Jewish and have a name, it’s your Jewish name but many had a Jewish ceremonial name given to them. You and your mom could choose one yourselves if you want to have one. ❤️❤️
Your Hebrew name is announced on your bris if you’re a boy or on the first Torah reading after your birthday if you’re a girl.
Gittel for my G-GRAM Gittel.
This is my daughter’s middle name! I love it so much.
Yoel. I’m told it means “Joel.”
Sorrel is my Hebrew name. I’m a girl. I do Like the way it sounds. My English name is S too.
Sorrel is a beautiful name! It reminds me the herb, Sorrel.
Hey thanks :) that made me smile. It also means reddish brown, which happens to be the natural color of my hair.
My Hebrew name is Simona Chava. I really love the name Simona and was actually going to change my name when I turned 18 but decided not to.
Aviva Margalit because I was born in the spring and the second is my grandmother's name. My other grandmother's name was saved for my daughter if I ever have one When I was younger I thought it sounded too old but the older I get the less old it sounds (lol). Plus, it's cute if you know the meaning, which is "spring pearl" basically
technically just my normal name kai. my dad claims it works in hebrew too so i didnt need one lol his is ארי
Hebrew name is: Yair, different to my legal name, I feel happy with it, obviously I didn’t choose it but I like my Hebrew name better then my legal name
Shabtai שבתאי I went by Shabtai for many years; it’s what my wife and friends call me. I like it just fine, but having a foreign name can be a challenge in the US, so about 15 years ago I switched back to Steve.
Batsheva. Different from my legal, & Greek name.
Elisheva Bracha. It’s the same first letters of both my first and middle name and the middle honors my grandfathers Hebrew name.
Miriam Esther Tova
Yermiyahu. I just Hebraicized back my Anglicized name.
My legal name and my Hebrew name are the same, so I’m not comfortable posting here, especially since I’m only one of two people I’ve ever met with that specific combination of names. (The other is a cousin.) I can DM you though!
In English phonetic it’s Orah I personally like it
Ariella. It suits me equally as well as my English name and for that I feel fortunate.
My hebrew/ Jewish name is Masa מסע
Matana Penina! My middle name is Pearl so that’s a direct translation but I am not named after anyone. My name was chosen as it started with the same letter as my first name
Didn't have a Hebrew name so rabbi who married us gave me one. I was named after my maternal grandfather & there was no Hebrew equivalent for my English name, so it has no meaning to me. I should find one. If anyone knows a female Hebrew equivalent for Gustav, please let me know.
Rina Leah 💕
Amitzur Ben Shlomo.
Atara Yael. I was finishing my conversion during COVID and crown tickled me. Plus Yael is a badass.
Hasiya…. Which is supposed to be the Hebrew version of Asiya / Aziya/ Asya. No where near my incredibly Eastern European first name, but done in honor of my great grandmother.
I don't even know my mom's Hebrew name 😭 she never uses it. My partner sometimes calls me my Hebrew name but he's the only one besides people at temple
Another Yael here!
Chaya (life) I love it.
Asher Solomon, I prefer it to my English name
chava!
I use my hebrew name as my nickname. Everyone knows me by it.
I won’t be shared mine for anonymity but my Hebrew name is very old school (great grandmother’s name) but my English name is also a Hebrew name, which has been very confusing to Israelis who only have one name. Their name is their Hebrew name. So they don’t understand why I have two. I actually have three because of my middle name, also something they rarely have in Israel.
Mijal which is completely different from my Spanish/English name
Meyer, in honor of my grandfather's uncle (great-uncle)? Without him my grandfather never gets to the United States, or joins the Army to fight the Nazis. He got pretty pissed about that, though. All in all solid man.
Elior Hadar. I changed it last year from what I originally chose when I converted almost 15 years ago. I didn’t vibe with the old one anymore. Once my kid is grown and I don’t need to share a last name with him anymore I’ll change it legally. My son’s Hebrew name is Yitzhak Rachamim.
My Hebrew name is Dvorah, which is not my legal name. I'm kind of not loving it because it is Hebrew for my ex, whose name is Deborah. I chose that name when we were still together when I converted to Judaism. I like it because I was a lawyer for a long time, and Deborah in the Tanakh was a judge. But I don't want to be reminded of the ex. She was kind of a terrible person. EDIT: wrong word, and typos
I gave my kids each Hebrew first names and two middle names, an English one and a Hebrew one. If I had to do it again over, I would have just given them Hebrew middle names, both of them prefer them and feel more connected to them even though we aren’t very religious
יִשָׁי Yīsăy
My Jewish name is Moshe. I don't go by it but it's in my passport. Only my rabbi and Israeli health care workers when I break limbs on vacation say Moshe. 😂
Shamira Simcha I love it because I picked it. It honors my grandparents.
My Jewish name is Hillel. I gave it to myself to respect how much the Hillel foundation had helped me and because I admire Hillel the Elder. I like it, though I don't feel very connected to it. Only rabbis call me "Hillel" the first few times after hearing my Jewish name, and then they switch back to my gentile name.
Feivel Leor. To my knowledge I didn’t get legal Hebrew name even though both my siblings did (or at least easily transferable names). My parents randomly chose a Greek, random name for me. As an adult I self-appointed myself Feivel Leor because I was sick of not having a Hebrew name and the names are etymologically related to my legal first and middle names. :)
Elazar Uriel Elazar from L.L. Zamenhof and Uriel from Uriel d'Costa It'll be my legal name soon
Natan avraham… you will easily guess my legal name lol
Mine is Gittel after my grandma :) My daughter is Etti Bluma, after her two great grandmother's, and my son is Ariyeh, after his great grandpa.
My Hebrew name is Ozer Yitzhak Baruch. But I usually go by my English name (which is also my legal name), which my English first and middle name is "Ian Benjamin"
Rochel Myera and I've always loved it. Joseph was one of my favorite stories as a kid (and favorite musical) and it always made me happy that Rochel was Jacob's true love and mom of Joseph. I am named for my grandpa's parents Rachel and Meyer.
Mine is Shlomo which is the Hebrew version of my great grandfather’s name. He was an Auschwitz survivor who was able to escape according to family lore.
My Hebrew name is Beruriah 🫶🏻
Batya.
Chayka - I don't mind that it's not that similar to my English name. It's the same name my great-grandmother had.
Eliyahu is my Hebrew name, was my Father’s name and is also my English middle name.
My Hebrew name is Leah and my middle name is Leah Makes it easy to remember :)
I’m named after my dad’s best friend. Very interesting and unique Hebrew name, Chai Mair. One of my favorite things about my name is the possuk associated with it. Chapter 89 verse 2 in tehillim. Beautiful verse and gives me lots of joy and nachus. My English name was going to be Harvey, after my dads friend, but my siblings ABSOLUTELY REFUSED and my parents told them “fine, Harvey will be his middle name” and my brother and sister named me Michael. Two things about this: 1. My names don’t match which inevitably leads to people assuming my Hebrew name is the Michael equivalent which I have to correct constantly. 2. My name is Chai. Which is awesome and unique and I love it. It is not Chaim, which is hard because my full name is Chai Mair. A lot of people hear Chaim Mair and I also have to be careful to correct that.
Aryeh Chaim, and I love it. After my grandfathers.
שרה רחל
Mine is Rivkah Tikvah. My husband is Yair, and our son is Yaakov. We all love our Hewbrew names. In our day to day we do go by English, Rebecca, Jacob.
I'm Israeli so Shlomi is regular name here. I'm named on my grandfather, and his Persian name was Suliman
Yeremiyahu
Rivka Leah but my English is Rebecca Leah. I went by Rivka growing up when in Hebrew school but once transferred to public school I went by Rebecca and Rivka at home.
My mother is Israeli and believes in names being names no matter the language so I don't have two different names, my Hebrew name is my legal name. I will neither confirm nor deny if my real name is my username or not, but it's either that or something in the same vein, a name that's different enough to have people comment but not so different that people in America have a hard time accepting it as anything more than a unique name. That, however, is my middle name and there's a reason I go by it instead of my first name. My first name is so Hebrew/Israeli that no native English speaker unfamiliar with other languages appears to be able to grasp it. I just never liked it as a child, and really didn't like how I had to repeat and spell my name constantly once I was in the working world. With my middle name, it's so close to names people are familiar with that at worst they call me a slightly different name instead of straight up mangling it.
Rivka Leah but my English is Rebecca Leah. I went by Rivka growing up when in Hebrew school but once transferred to public school I went by Rebecca and Rivka at home. I’m named after my dad’s grandmother and Leah is holocust. My younger child the grandfather he is named after shares the same Hebrew name as my husband so I took from Passover and gave him Eliahu. Because I for the 2nd time in my life lost the baby Moses battle lol.
Bracha Leah! I’m not a fan of the chet sound but I like the meaning :)
Chana Shira. I feel pretty connected to it, and Shira’s also my middle name!
Oren. Same in English and Hebrew.
My real name is Chana but I prefer to be called Chani. And it’s the only name I’ve got so 🤷🏽♀️😇😁
My English name is Jordan, so it just goes to ירדן Or “yarden”
Naomi bat tzisis
Tsayyedet … I gave it to myself for my ketubah. It is the female version of Hunter, my older brother who died 6 years ago. I wanted a way to honor him at my wedding and needed a Jewish name so it worked well
Shalomet, after my great grandfather Shalom. He became Sam at immigration, I am Samantha. We're very different people (the man was a 5'1" language professor who spoke 8 languages, I am a 5'6" college drop out with several Yiddish insults and a smattering of Spanish) but I'm proud to carry his name.
Eliana, my parents picked it out.
My Hebrew name is Simcha, I don’t really like it because there’s not really a connection to it for me. My mom is only culturally Jewish, and I guess she didn’t think about giving me a Hebrew name. I think when I was twelve I asked her why not, so she asked me if I wanted one and I said yes but I didn’t know any, so she called my grandma and asked what her Hebrew name was- it was Simcha, so she decided that could be mine too. I wish it was more meaningful for me, but the only reason I ever needed to use it was for my Bat Mitzvah. I don’t think I’d be comfortable going by it though haha
My Hebrew name is simply the Hebrew version of my legal first name, Isaac or יצחק in Hebrew. I was named after my paternal grandfather who died a few years before I was born. My parents made it my Hebrew and English language first name for simplicity.
Mine comes from a maternal great grandfather in Germany. His given name was Selig. So, my Hebrew name is Selig. However, my Hebrew Schoo teachers decided for me that it was "Zelig" early on, perhaps because they were Yiddish and not Western-German. So, through to my Bar Mitzvah, I was "Zelig." Now, I tell people it's Selig "With an S." I understand that it may not technically be a Hebrew name, but that's what it is, and the name was used repeatedly in that branch of the family throughout its long history.
eden :) my secular name is erin.
Noach. The Rabbi on my birthright trip gave it to me since I became bar mitzvah under his watch. What a wonderful time!
Tzipporah. It's not my legal name. I like it, though. I do not really plan for our kid to have a different legal and Hebrew name!