Giving English (legal) names

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Forum -> Pregnancy & Childbirth -> Baby Names

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amother

Wheat

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 12:24 pm

I'm curious what other people think of the practice of giving English/secular legal names in addition to Hebrew/Jewish names. Do you give similar-sounding names? (Tzofia/Sophia or Amalia/Emily, for example) Names with similar meanings? (Chana/Grace) The Anglicized version of a Hebrew name? (Yehuda/Judah) or just pick something you like, regardless of the sound and meaning? What is your reasoning for choosing a legal name that's different than the Hebrew name?

And for those of you who chose ONLY Hebrew names and transliterate them on the birth certificate, do you make sure to only choose easily-pronounced, non-teasable names that translate well into English? How do you handle "ch" names?

flowerpower

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 12:38 pm

I only write their hebrew names on their birth certificate. Our country is made of immigrants So most of the names they see are not the typical english names anyways. If the name is Esty then I'll write Esther or if it's Chany I'll write Chana etc.....

chicco

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 12:50 pm

I do not give my kids English names. It was one of the major zechuyos of the Jews in Mitzrayim that they kept their Jewish names. That's number one. So even of you are giving them Jewish names as well, I always gleaned a certain chashivus for rejecting secular names. Two, once you give your kid an English name, it is their legal name. The one they will be using when they are out in the world, all of the time. It is not just the name they will volunteer to make it easier for whomever they are interacting with. Three, in this day and age no one makes apologizes for their absurd or ethnic sounding names. I don't see why we should. Give your kid a nickname they can go by that makes things simpler.

I don't see a need to be apologetic to the world. I also give my kids names that they can hopefully be proud of and embrace, and I spell them in English as authentic to their pronunciation as possible. So far so good.

saw50st8

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 12:54 pm

amother wrote:

We give english names (and call them by the english names). Their hebrew names are all named after people, some of their english names are after people. We don't necessarily match. Some of the names match more than others. My kids are:

Meir Pinchas/Logan Paul
Akiva Dan/Cody Daniel
Miriam Tehila/Mackenzie Grace
Shlomo Zev/Oliver Harrison

I think when it comes to this, it's all personal preference. I find it annoying to only have my hebrew name. It's not a hard name (Shira), but it's butchered all the time. Most of the people I know with hard names to pronounce end up choosing a nickname for the workplace (that includes my Indian/Chinese/Sudanese etc coworkers).

pesek zman

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 1:00 pm

We gave our girl an English legal name (Julia) so she has options. She can choose not to use it, or she can choose to use it. I wouldn't want to make that decision for her

mha3484

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 1:11 pm

My kids have only hebrew names but they are relatively uncomplicated. As adults, my Yosef or Shmuel can call themselves whatever they want. I have an efraim which doesnt really have a translation but I am sure he can figure something out if he finds it so important.

OOTBubby

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 1:13 pm

My kids all have only Hebrew names; I also figured they could pick something to use if they needed later. Well, they're all married adults. A number are prominent businessmen and they all only use their Hebrew names.

amother

Goldenrod

Fri, Apr 14 2017, 1:30 pm

We use the Hebrew name, but so far it's only been easy to pronounce names like Avraham and Dina. If we had a Mordechai we'd probably do Max or Mordy or something else; same with any other "ch" name

Ruchel

Sat, Apr 15 2017, 4:33 pm

My children have French and Italian names but actually not as first. We put them as last, and they're family. We did choose some easier or more well known names as first. Some could pass for European, like say Adel, some really can't be are well known, like say Israel. They'll use whatever they want. The new generations goes back to roots: Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, Basque, Britton...

amother

Azure

Sat, Apr 15 2017, 5:00 pm

I'm bt and my English name is very not Jewish (like Margaret) had wanted to do only Hebrew names but when I ws pregnant I discovered that the son of the local rabbi went by an English name at work (let's say his name is Yehoshua but he is Josh at work) so in the end we have a use bilingual English names like Deborah, Samuel, Miriam and so on.

little_mage

Sat, Apr 15 2017, 9:35 pm

We give English names and use them. Our first two are direct, anglicized versions of the Hebrew name. Our third, her names are flipped because it sounds better that way, and it's slightly less obvious anyway, but that's because there isn't a direct correspondence.

However, we follow Yekkeish customs, and there is a naming ceremony where a child is given a secular name. It's called a kol krish. I've never met anyone else who does it, but it does show that there is at least one strong tradition for both giving and using secular names.

toastedbagel

Sat, Apr 15 2017, 11:53 pm

I use only the Hebrew names. And three of my kids have a ch, but funnily enough they are all called by their other names. So many other cultural groups use their traditional names proudly, why shouldn't we?

sequoia

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 12:03 am

Ruchel wrote:

But Mathilde is a French name too.

amother

Slategray

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 12:11 am

Depends which community you belong to. Personally I would not give secular names.
unless
it's a hard name to pronounce so I would give a similar one in secular.

amother

Periwinkle

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 1:10 am

My parents are BT and had the fortune of going through their lives with secular names (which they continue to use for business purposes). However, they decided to give us all only Jewish names, and even those of us who have names which are commonly used in secular culture, they spelled it differently so that it could never be confused with the secular version.

News flash. Secular people are not going to know how to pronounce your child's name the yiddish way. So they might not say it the secular way, but they won't say it the yiddish way either. Your child will constantly be dealing with correcting some mangled pronunciation of someone trying to break their teeth to pronounce something. If your child is introverted, this will be a humiliating experience. Introverted people do not like drawing additional attention to themselves. Not in college, not in waiting rooms, etc. Some of my siblings actually went through the trouble of legally changing their names once they were adults, just because of how much inconvenience it caused.

Just something to keep in mind when naming your children.

Ruchel

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 6:35 am

Some change their name to Jewish others to secular. Parents get to decide. I've never heard of being humiliated because you correct someone, but I know Americans do trigger warnings over everything these days Wink

mommy3b2c

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 7:25 am

I have a secular name and I m very happy I do. It makes life much less complicated. I gave all my kids secular name as well.

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Apr 16 2017, 7:45 am

so far my daughters Jewish names are also used by secular people so it hasn't been an issue think like Miriam (not actually that but that idea)

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