Naming a girl for a male relative?

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 3:44 pm

IYH I'm going to be having a girl (our first child) in a few months, and my DH and I have a few questions regarding naming practices that our families do not seem to have minhags for.

Our questions:
1) since this child IYH will be the first grandchild for both of our parents, and we both only have one living grandparent, we were wondering if there was any way to pick which grandparent to name after. Are there any customs? We both have a "favorite" grandfather and have thought about each name being for the respective grandfathers, but is there a custom as to naming after who died first? Most recently? Or just whoever we admired most?

2) Is there any custom about naming baby girls only after female relatives and boys after male relatives? We were thinking along the lines of turning the male name into a female one (Adin --> Adina, for instance).

3) If both of grandparents that we want to name after have the same first initial, and we would like to have two different initials for the first and middle name, what are ways that we can do that while still honoring the grandparent? Going from Yiddish to Hebrew might do the trick?

4) Shraga Feivel - is there a Hebrew equivalent to this name?

Thank you in advance for your help!

amother

Bisque

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 4:25 pm

What is your minchag?
I'm Sephardic so we name after living parents.
1st boy/girlafter DH father/mother, 2nd after my.
When I had my last child,#4, I knew it would be my last and no one was named after my father, so I named her a girls name that has the same meaning.

What's the Hebrew for Shraga Feivel?

singleagain

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 4:29 pm

I've never encountered one. Two, I've heard of that being done all the time. With three, if you don't want the same initial (though I don't see a problem with it) a translation or maybe using a trait of the person like if they were happy, or loving, or full of life of whatever. Four, I'm not good at translation, maybe someone else knows

amother

Seafoam

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 4:36 pm

The chassidic custom is to name the first child after the mother's side and then alternate sides for subsequent children. The exception would be if there was a recently deceased relative from the other side (especially if it is within a year).

water_bear88

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 4:42 pm

Shraga is Aramaic for "candle". You could go for almost any of the "Or" names- Meira, Tair, Leora, Ora, etc. For a boy Nerya would be closer. And frankly, Aramaic names can often work in DL circles in Israel where Yiddish names might be a bit stranger.

Feivel is Yiddish- I think Zaq has mentioned its origin before; you can search old baby name posts. If I remember correctly, though, you're not going to find a Hebrew equivalent.

Bernie

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 5:13 pm

Rav Moshe weinberger has a 6 part series on names. As to 2, he says its not a good idea in general. Iirc, he was referring to the type of David turned to Davida type names, not naming a child Shira for a relative who loved to sing.

doctorima

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 8:47 pm

In Ashkenazic circles in normal circumstances, the custom is generally that you get to to name the first baby after your side, your DH the 2nd baby after his side, and alternate from there. There are often exceptions, but that's the general custom. I've also learned that on a Kabbalistic level it can be harmful to the baby to name him/her after somebody from the opposite gender.

Ruchel

Thu, Aug 04 2016, 8:53 am

There is such a thing as naming for someone who is in his year (of death).
Various names have been created to name after opposite gender (mostly after male but a few after female). I guess not everyone is kabbala Wink

amother

Papaya

Thu, Aug 04 2016, 2:29 pm

So if you both want to name after relatives, if one relative already has someone names after him and the other relative has no one named after him, then you should name after the person who has no one named for them. If neither of them have been named after, you could also prioritize the one who has gone the longest with no namesake. Or, if neither have a namesake, you could go with the one who is least likely to be named after in the future (for example, I have a great aunt with no descendants, that almost all my cousins are too young to remember her and probably wouldn't name after her, so I would prioritize her - because if I don't name after her, probably no one will).

Of course, my parents just combined names - one from my dad's side and one from my mom's side.

Shraga and Feivel both mean 'candle'. A really nice name for it is Neriah (candle of G-d or G-d is my candle). It's a name from Tanach too!

losingweight

Thu, Aug 04 2016, 3:17 pm

There was once a story of a woman who was infertile. Her parents had named her after a man. Their rebbe suggested renaming her after a woman. She got pregnant soon after.
I was never comfortable with the idea.

amother

Wine

Thu, Aug 04 2016, 6:29 pm

I know a Malka named after her grandpa Max. There had been no one named for him and they weren't sure they'd have more kids. She ended up being the youngest so if they hadn't named her for him he wouldn't have a namesake. Btw she's now married and BH didn't have trouble getting pregnant.