names

[Sarah Bunin Benor]

I enjoyed reading the interesting thread on names. I have a few comments about the North American milieu:

I recently conducted an online survey with Steven M. Cohen of Jews and non-Jews in the U.S. and Canada (about 24,000 Jewish respondents, 6,000 non-Jewish). While we're still in the process of analyzing this data, I want to give you a taste of what we found:

Names that are popular among non-Jews are often popular among Jews, especially if they have a Hebrew/Biblical origin (with the exception of those with Christian associations). Naming practices correlate to some extent with denominations (especially Orthodox vs. non-Orthodox), levels of religiosity and learnedness, and orientations toward Israel. Also, there is a socioeconomic component to naming practices: highly educated professionals often use "new" (less popular) names, which become popular when they spread to middle and working classes (see Levitt and Dubner's *Freakonomics*); Jewish and non-Jewish professionals are likely overrepresented in our sample...

We asked respondents how likely they would be to give their children names like these. The %s presented here are those who said they would be likely or somewhat likely to use names like these for their chidlren. Unless otherwise noted, U.S. name statistics are based on Social Security Administration website for 2007.
	Jews	Non-Jews
Joshua, Daniel, Sarah, Rebecca (Anglicized Hebrew names that were in U.S. top 10 in 1980)	82	58
Jacob, Ethan, Hannah, Abigail: (Anglicized Hebrew names in U.S. top 10 in 2007)	74	55
Alex, Julian, Zoe, Ella (non-Hebrew names in U.S. top 100, likely common among professionals)	48	60
Ezra, Ari, Talia, Eliana (Hebrew names in U.S. top 600 - common among Jews with high religious engagement)	41	11
Matan, Lev, Meital, Noa (Hebrew names not in top 1000 - common among Jews with strong Israel connections)	18	2
Tyler, Dylan, Makayla, Madison (non-Hebrew names in U.S. top 50)	14	28
Moyshe, Mendy, Basya, Freydie (Yiddish names common in Ashkenazi black hat Orthodox communities)	4	1
Christopher, John, Christine, Mary (Christian associations)	2	54

That's all for now,
Sarah

[Minden]

Very interesting!

Could you tell us how you define the groups of names?

I'd think, for instance, that Daniel is an English, not an Anglicised Hebrew name, even though at the end of the line English-Latin-Greek there's Hebrew. (The line might go further, but that's not relevant here.) It was virtually unused by Ashkenazzic Jews until they arrived in English-speaking countries, and even today, I know a Daniel whose Jewish name is Dovid. Of course, the use has increased among Jews, but still, most bearers probably don't regard the name to be Hebrew. For the UK, an indicator might be if conservative parents use the name, or only conservative *Catholic* parents. Same with Sarah, though Sure etc. are and were more common among Jews.

And Moyshe, I should say, is a perfect Hebrew, not a Yiddish name. In the ghastly form Moyshie, it's an Anglicised Hebrew name.

And isn't Eliana a Romance name that goes back to Greek Helene, only recently picked up by Israelis because of the similarity to some Hebrew names (or frankly, probably because it fits a certain phonetic pattern that is considered nice and a tad smart for girls)? Decidedly less Hebrew/Aramaic than John or Mary. (Incidentally, is John really as much shunned as Christopher among Jews?)

I don't want to enter the discussion whether the language spoken by a majority of Israelis is to be regarded Hebrew, but that Israeli names aren't simply the same as Hebrew names is hardly disputed. (And you seem to look into that with your interesting survey.)

Lipman Phillip Minden

[Yona Sabar]

The name Daniel (for men), hardly used among other Jewish
communities, was quite common among the Jews of Iraq. The reason
being its association with local traditional shrines (and Biblical
Bavel). So were the names of the Prophets Hasqel (Ezekiel), Yona (for
men only), and Nahum. All these shrines were visited at least once a
year by Jewish masses on Hag Shavuot, known more as 'id Ziyara =
Holiday of Visiting Shrines.

Yona Sabar

--
Yona Sabar, Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic, and Graduate Adviser,
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC), 376C
Humanities Building,
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1511 (MC 151105)
(home) 310-474-6430; (office) 310-206-1389; Fax: to Prof. Sabar at
(310) 206-6456.
Visit: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/nelc/Faculty/Sabar.htm

[Rebecca Rubin Damari]

Sarah,

You mention Christopher, Christine, John, and Mary as names with Christian associations and thus not used much by Jews. I've always been intrigued by the popularity among Jews of names like Matthew, Paul, and especially Mark, Andrew, and Steven (these last three not having Hebrew correlates that I can think of)--all names of prominent new testament characters. There may be others, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Any thoughts? Is it as simple as lack of awareness of the origins?

Rebecca

[Dr. Avraham Ben-Rahamiėl Qanaļ]

I beg to differ. The name Daniel is quite common amongst the Karaite Jews of Egypt, Turkey, Crimea, and Persia, as well as modern Israel. Nahum is also common.

Avraham

 

[Jonathan Weiser]

Speaking of "anglicizing" names, my modern orthodox brother has a daughter whose "Hebrew" name is "Sosha Golda," but her English (birth certificate) name is "Shoshana Zehava."

[rdhob...@notes.cc.sunysb.edu]

If we say that Shosha Golda is the daughter's JEWISH name (rather than "Hebrew name"), that means that in the parents' mind Yiddish is more Jewish than Hebrew is.  Or if Shosha Golda is her "shem ha-kodesh" -- name used for sacred functions -- then Yiddish is more sacred than Hebrew.  Or maybe it's that Yiddish is more "insider" and Hebrew is considered more appropriate for "outsider" functions.   Whichever it is, it's very interesting!

From:	Jonathan Weiser <weis...@yahoo.com>
To:	Jewish Languages <jewish-l...@googlegroups.com>
Date:	02/27/2009 10:01 AM
Subject:	[Jewish Languages] Re: names
Sent by:	jewish-l...@googlegroups.com

---