Transliteration of Yiddish Name "Behre"

[Gail M Patterson gpatterson69@gvtc.com]

X-No-archive: yes
Is the Yiddish name "Behre" (variants, "Bahre," "Behr," "Bere" or "Beryl")
often transliterated to "David"? If not, what is a common transliteration?
Reason for asking: a female ancestor was married to "Behre" Shatoff and bore
7 children to him, but then had one child with "David" Shatoff--are Behre
and David the same person or relatives (e.g. brothers or cousins)?

Thanks very much.

Gail M. Patterson, Boerne, TX, gpatte...@gvtc.com
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[David Ziants dziants@gmail.com]

X-No-archive: yes
Gail Patterson <gpatte...@gvtc.com> asks:

<<< Is the Yiddish name "Behre" (variants, "Bahre," "Behr," "Bere" or
"Beryl") often transliterated to "David"? If not, what is a common
transliteration? >>>

The English translation (and transliteration) of Yiddish word "Behr"
is "Bear" - and unlike Yiddish - "Bear" is not really an English name
(maybe "Teddy"). The Hebrew translation of Yiddish "Behr" (and English
word bear) is "Dov" spelled <daled> <bhet> - and this is very much an
acceptable Hebrew name. Although this Hebrew name does not have an
English equivalent (it tends generally to be that only Biblical Hebrew
names have standard English equivalents and Dov is not a Biblical name
as far as I know), it can also double up as an English civil name.
Because "David" also starts with a "D", I have know people with Hebrew
name "Dov" to have been given "David" as their civil name. (David as a
Hebrew name is a Biblical name, but this is not relevant here.)

Note that in some Ashkenazi pronunciation dialects, "David" as a Hebrew
name is pronounced "Dovid". Despite the similarity, this is though a
different name to "Dov" as Hebrew "David" is usually spelled <daled>
<vav> <daled> and so the names are from different roots.

To summarize, the Hebrew name equivalent of Yiddish name "Behr" is "Dov"
and means "a bear". The Hebrew name "David" is of a different root to
Hebrew name "Dov" and are not equivalent. This has not precluded from
people with Jewish name "Dov" or "Dov Bear" been given civil name "David".

David Ziants <dziants at gmail.com> (Please put "@" for word "at")
Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel
Researching (on paternal ancestry) ZIANTS, ISMACH or ISHMA (became OSMAN
and DAVIDSON as in Davidson's Bakery, Cable Street, E.End London,UK),
ZENETSKY (became SCHLOSSBERG), FRYDMAN all possibly from Narewka,
Bialystok, Lomza, Lodz, Warsaw

[Ellen H Caplan ellencaplan@gmail.com]

X-No-archive: yes
Gail M. Patterson asked if the Yiddish name "Behre" (variants, "Bahre,"
"Behr," "Bere" or "Beryl") is often transliterated to "David"? If not,

what is a common transliteration?

The Yiddish name Ber, Behre, etc. was usually translated in English as
Bernard. However, the individual’s full name was often "Dov Ber;" Dov
means bear in Hebrew, while Ber means bear in Yiddish. It was common for
Eastern European Jews to have such a double name meaning the same thing,
with the first in Hebrew and the second in Yiddish. (Other examples
include Tzvi Hersh, meaning deer, and Aryeh Leib, meaning lion.)

Ellen Caplan
Ottawa, Canada

Researching:
EISENBERG, NAGLER, GINIGER, KLINGER (Mielnica and Ustye Biscupie, Galicia)
BREGER, LEBMAN (LIEBMAN) (Belarus)
SOLOMON, PARADISGARTEN (Tukums, Mitau/Jelgava, Latvia)

[Odeda Zlotnick odedapri@fastmail.fm]

X-No-archive: yes
The Yiddish name Behr, (Ber, Berel Berl, Beryl) literally comes from
"bear", the animal. And it frequently appears in the Hebrew - Yiddish
combination "Dov-Ber" ("dov" being a bear in Hebrew).

"David" has nothing to do with that. However - mishearing "Dov-Ber"
for "Dovid" (one way or pronouncing "David") seem quite possible to me.
Furthermore, both Dov and David in can be written in three letters in
Hebrew (or Yiddish, which uses Hebrew letters). And only the last of
the three will be different - and a small difference at that.

In the following image,
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xuf1F9mTw_o/Uzz-OEGtDzI/AAAAAAAAATA/9KOdZiOdDrw/s1600/R828.gif
look at the top row: second character from the right is the last letter
of Dov, fourth character form the right for the last letter in David.
When a real person writes, it's easy mistake the one for the other.

Odeda Zlotnick
Searching:
KULIKOWER, BLASS, BOTTWIN-MELLER in Lemberg and Vienna;
LEISEROWITZ, ZIGLER; COSULEANU in Iassy and Cosula;
MENDELOWITSCH (MENDELWICZ) in Tomaszow Mazowietsky;
ZLOTNICK from Lapici (Lapich) Belarus, FEIGIN from Minsk, Belarus