What's wrong with non-Tanachi names?

finallyamommy

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 12:50 pm

Real quick before dinner--
cb's mommy, but that's not in the pshat, and we have bible-reading non-frum relatives.
PinkFridge, we don't have female relatives to name after.
YESHA--I like Sara and Rivka, he doesn't, we have a living grandmother Rochel, we're both "meh" on Leah, and they're all way too common anyway. Some of the others are good ideas.
Raisin--yep, the other Tamar.

Last edited by finallyamommy on Tue, Feb 10 2015, 6:27 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 3:45 pm

You got a lot of good ideas, so I'm not gonna bother posting those. I just noticed that you put Chaya on your list of names that you love that aren't "tanachi". I think I recall learning, (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that Chava's, as in Adam and Chava, original name was Chaya. I think after she sinned her name became Chava instead of Chaya. So that would make the name ok for you two, right?

Last edited by amother on Fri, Aug 21 2020, 8:03 am; edited 1 time in total

2cents

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 10:04 pm

several years ago, I went to a shiur given by R' Menachem Nissel (teaches in several seminaries in yerushalyim, author of Rigshai Lev). he mentioned in passing that when his daughter was born they asked a shaylah because they wanted to use the name 'Shira' (or some similar non-tanach name).
I'm pretty sure he asked either R' Shternbuch or R' Shapiro and he was told it is Minhag Yisrael to name girls after beautiful things.

poelmamosh

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 10:48 pm

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet: There is a halachic reason many people like to use names from Tanach. There may be issues with a kesubah if names are misspelled, and having a name with an indisputable spelling preempts this problem.

imaima

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 5:33 am

poelmamosh wrote:

Is it easy to misspell Chaya or Nechama? I think there are common spellings for such names. on the other hand, Tanachi names can be misspelled too...

saw50st8

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 6:54 am

shalhevet wrote:

saw50st8 wrote:

shalhevet wrote:

esheschayil wrote:

saw50st8: what's Ayla mean and where is it? Also, I'd be very surprised if none of my favorites were words in Tanach, so apparently that's not okay either.

A word is not a name. But Ayala is the name of the Shechina haKedosha, but it still isn't a Tanachi name...

How do you think people in Tanach were named? Nouns, verbs....they made them into names.

They had nevua/ ruach hakodesh - they didn't just choose any word. That is the point - I know some rabbonim say many popular names are not names at all - just words. A name has a koach/ tafkid (power/ role in life) which comes with it. A word is just a word, even if it appears in the Tanach.

Don't women have ruach hakodesh when naming their kids?

Mine name is Shira, so clearly I shouldn't talk. My name is not a name Rolling Eyes

imaima

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 7:02 am

saw50st8 wrote:

shalhevet wrote:

saw50st8 wrote:

shalhevet wrote:

esheschayil wrote:

saw50st8: what's Ayla mean and where is it? Also, I'd be very surprised if none of my favorites were words in Tanach, so apparently that's not okay either.

A word is not a name. But Ayala is the name of the Shechina haKedosha, but it still isn't a Tanachi name...

How do you think people in Tanach were named? Nouns, verbs....they made them into names.

Don't women have ruach hakodesh when naming their kids?

Mine name is Shira, so clearly I shouldn't talk. My name is not a name Rolling Eyes

But it's a pleasant thing! Thumbs Up

finallyamommy

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 9:22 am

imaima wrote:

poelmamosh wrote:

Is it easy to misspell Chaya or Nechama? I think there are common spellings for such names. on the other hand, Tanachi names can be misspelled too...

Yeah. I've only ever seen one spelling for Chaya, one for Nechama...but I've seen Yehuda spelled with an alef instead of a hay, David spelled with or without a yud, etc.

amother

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 11:09 am

poelmamosh wrote:

Even Tanach names are not so clear-cut. When the name Devorah, for example, appears in Chumash (as meinekes Rivka), the name does not have a vav. When the name appears in Navi, it does.
In this case, using a Tanachi name doesn't help very much.
There's a Bais Shmuel on Gittin that lists the spelling of many names, so if the name was used before his time, there's not such an issue. (For the record, he spells Devorah with a vav. Smile

)

Raisin

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 11:15 am

poelmamosh wrote:

I find this strange in light of the fact that historically women have often been given non hebrew names as Jewish names (gittel, shayna, Aidel, Yentil) while men always seem to have had at least one hebrew name (dov Ber, Shloma Zalman)

Ruchel

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 11:39 am

Raisin wrote:

poelmamosh wrote:

Actually the rabbanim of the 12th century in France and Germany had to make a rule that a man had to have at least one Hebrew name. It does seem that it was mostly followed after that, but in the Talmud not all have, nor outside of Europe.

poelmamosh

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 3:01 pm

Raisin wrote:

poelmamosh wrote:

Not everyone holds of or is even aware of this. I heard this from my grandfather, who was very into our Tanachi names (he called me by my first name, one of the Imahos, as opposed to what everyone else calls me - my Yiddish name). If he had any other issues with his MIL, I don't know, but he was NOT happy to have 3 granddaughters named Frumit Mindel. Smile

In general, though, Yiddish names are often an alteration of some other Yiddish or Hebrew name. Many times a nickname would become the given name in the next generation. (eg, Rivka - Rishe, Miriam-Mariasha, Basya - Pessia) Perhaps this happened less among men who are called to the Torah by their full name? or, what Ruchel said? (never heard it before).

Re: Dovid, I've never seen an alternate spelling (Yehuda, I have, but with an Alef it would qualify as a Yiddish name) Chaya can be spelled with a hey or not.

singleagain

Tue, Jan 17 2012, 3:16 pm

OP,

if you pick up a tanach, and look up shir ha'shirim, perek 2 verses 1-2, u'll find variations of one of ur favorite names that u named in the first post

it also, happens to be my first name Wink

oh, and my middle name was just in this past week's parsha (although not said out in pasuk, there's a common drash) shemos, perek 2 we meet her in verse 5

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3002.htm

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0202.htm

also, there are women who are not named... at least I think not, -- pretty sure it just says things like "noach's wife" "asher's daughter" "on ben pelet's wife" --- plus, I remember once learning avraham's mother's name, in a meforesh, but I don't remember it... point is, these names are often found in commentators