Amina for girl's name?

etky

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 12:46 am

zaq wrote:

Amina is Arabic, not Hebrew, and means faithful or trustworthy. I wouldn't give a Jewish child an Arabic name.

This word does exist in Hebrew too, as a commonly used adjective meaning trustworthy or credible, but it is not a name AFAIK.
OTOH it is, as mentioned, a common feminine name in Arabic so keep that in mind.
If you do decide to use the word as a name, make sure the accent is on the final syllable as that is how the word is pronounced in Hebrew.
Any other pronounciation would not be understood as Hebrew.

amother

Yellow

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 1:30 pm

I am Sephardic. I and half the women in my family have Arabic names. My older daughter has an Arabic name. I couldn't care less if it is also an Arabic name. That was not my question, although I appreciate your input. I do not feel confined to Judeo German or Hebrew names. If a name also doesn't mean something negative in Hebrew and we like it I see no reason not to use it because it is also an Arabic name.

And if anyone decided based on her name that my daughter is of Arab descent, well, they would be right and I refuse to be ashamed of that.

If the Arabic language was good enough for the Rambam, for Rabbi Sa'adia Gaon, for Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, Rabbeinu Bachya, Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, the Ben Ish Hai and others, it's good enough for me.

Thank you.

amother

Yellow

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 1:34 pm

zaq wrote:

Amina is Arabic, not Hebrew, and means faithful or trustworthy. I wouldn't give a Jewish child an Arabic name.

I hope you're also against German names like Gittel, Bayla, Alter, Fayvel, Heshel etc.

Amina is a traditional Jewish name, at least in Tunisia.

etky

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 2:09 pm

Wow, yellow - why all the hostility?
You asked about the name's meaning in Hebrew so we thought that the Hebrew was your overiding concern.
If you like the name and it's traditional in your circles then you should use it.
Many of us here don't have that association with it, that's all.

amother

Yellow

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 6:00 pm

etky wrote:

Because I am cranky and nauseous and I've been sick all day and throwing up and tired and I still had to cook for shabbat and take care of my kids etc etc and I am sick of hearing my whole life about how Yiddish names are jewish and Arabic is bad it's hurtful why can't I be a good Jew and still enjoy my culture? I always feel 2nd best and I guess I just have a lower tolerance today and I'm sorry.

And I just wanted to check because just because a name is traditional doesn't mean that sometimes it can't mean something embarrassing today like Frecha which was a really common name and now nobody can use it. And I just want to focus on names and not on how sick I am and keep myself focused on the prize at the end. And people just keep going on and on about how it's an arab name so that's bad. So I'm sorry if I am coming off as hostile I'm just hurt.

momfrombrooklyn

Thu, Jun 15 2017, 6:15 pm

It depends where you live. I live in brooklyn, and I work with children of all backgrounds -sephardic, askenaz, and not jewish. I agree that amina sounds pretty, but the only girl I've ever met with the name was muslem, so you just want to decide how unique of a Jewish name it would be in your area. there are definitely named that I've seen on both frum kids and not jewish kids like kayla, shilo names from the torah, etc. Amina is not one of them, but you never know, if it sounds okay for your community, you might start a trend!