"normal" yiddish names

bubby

Mon, Feb 16 2009, 8:01 pm

By "too Yiddish sounding" I presume you mean names like Yenta, Yetty, Shprintza, G'nendel, Velvel, Volf, Heshy etc (I can't think of any more but there must be others.)

TzenaRena

Mon, Feb 16 2009, 8:18 pm

I have an issue with categorizing nice Jewish names that are hallowed by minhag of Yidden as normal or "not normal". History is replete with Geonim and tzaddikim- both men and women - who had the most unusual names. Once you name a child, the name takes on the child's character, end of story. If the child is beautiful, his or her Yiddish name will be too! Suggestion, can we be grown up?

bubby

Mon, Feb 16 2009, 11:30 pm

TzenaR, when I think of what the Rebbe says about names being so important, it changes the perspective of how we see them, doesn't it? And the child takes on the character of the special people for whom they were named. When we chose a name for one of our kids we never imagined how "prophetic" it would turn out to be, B"H.

I'm lucky, I have a "normal"Yiddish name & a "normal" Hebrew one. My sister is G'nendel. I have only ever met one other person with that name. And so?? I personally love Yiddish names - all of them. Sometimes the combination can be a little weird, but again, so what?

Akeres Habayis

Tue, Feb 17 2009, 4:57 am

ok tirtza may be from the Torah,BUT I know a few older bubbies from europe w//this name.that's why,I like it,maybe I got carried away.shterna isn't just a lub name,it just so happen u know lub w/that name LOL

Seraph

Tue, Feb 17 2009, 7:04 am

Akeres Habayis wrote:

right, but I'm saying its common in lubavitch circles, and not considered "your typical standard name" in non lubavitch circles.

Akeres Habayis

Tue, Feb 17 2009, 7:42 am

"your typical standard name" in non lub circles.come on u dont know everyone LOL

she asked for yiddish names I gave her one,I hope she isnt' so stuck on who uses the name the most.but choose a name that seems to fit her child,regardless of who uses it.

amother

Mon, Mar 30 2009, 7:04 pm

Ruchel wrote:

Shayna is used as a "trendy" name by non jews

When naming children, my dh and I consider the fact that we are not in a heavily populated Jewish area, and whether we like it or not, are surrounded by non jews. We chose the more non jewish spelling of this name to make it as easy as possible on our dd. (She'll have a hard enough time trying to explain that chanuka is not the jewish xmas.)

amother

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:26 pm

amother wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

Shayna is used as a "trendy" name by non jews

We do the same, and we name our children names that are jewish but can pass for non jewish, like Rachel, Rebeca, Sarah, Isaac, etc.

But the truth is, nowadays people give their names all kinds of strange made-up names, so a rare Yiddish name MIGHT actually fit in!

amother

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:26 pm

amother wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

Shayna is used as a "trendy" name by non jews

chaylizi

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:31 pm

yeah like suri. and shaya. I think another celebrity named her kid zev. love the exotic names people.

goodheart

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:35 pm

yiddy
miri or miriam
malky
leah
shia
ruchy
rivki
bruchy
chaim
chesky
esty
chany
zissy
rina
shany

chaylizi

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:37 pm

goodheart wrote:

yiddy
miri or miriam
malky
leah
shia
ruchy
rivki
bruchy
chaim
chesky
esty
chany
zissy
rina
shany

except for zissy, all those names are chassidish nicknames for hebrew names. not yiddish ones.

Ruchel

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:50 pm

kikavu wrote:

goodheart wrote:

yiddy
miri or miriam
malky
leah
shia
ruchy
rivki
bruchy
chaim
chesky
esty
chany
zissy
rina
shany

except for zissy, all those names are chassidish nicknames for hebrew names. not yiddish ones.

ditto. And some even have nothing especially Yiddish. Miri, Miriam, Lea, Chaim, Rina, Shani are plain Hebrew. Others are nicknames of Hebrew names with the "I" trend (American charedi?). Some are -I nicknames that exist for centuries (Chani, esti) and also among Sefardim.

chaylizi

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:59 pm

I don't understand why the I ending is american chareidi. my dh is from europe and most of his siblings are called by nicknames that end in y or I. no american chareidim in my in laws house at all.

Ruchel

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 1:02 pm

kikavu wrote:

I don't understand why the I ending is american chareidi. my dh is from europe and most of his siblings are called by nicknames that end in y or I. no american chareidim in my in laws house at all.

I don't know, by here those who use them often are either American (and settled here), or some kind of anglophone, or studied there a long time, etc, and most of them are on the very charedi side. I have asked around to older people about the practice, and apart from some nicknames that are classics (Miri, etc), they all said no one went aroun being called Chavi or Moyshy in their times...

chaylizi

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 1:40 pm

I think shraga is aramaic, if I'm not mistaken.

maybe it's a french thing not to. but not everything not done in france is an american thing. my dh's only american relatives are sisters in law & myself and our kids.

Ruchel

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 1:43 pm

kikavu wrote:

I asked my relatives too, who lived in various countries such as Belgium, Poland, Greece, Italy... Never heard of most of the -I nicknames, except some that were real classics (and funnily are not the ones used often these days). They did notice them more and more with anglophone influence, like I did.