Boy names meaning "grace" or "compassion"

Senior Member Joined: Dec 17 2011 Posts: 213

We have a relative that we'd like to name after whose name was Ian. We don't know what his Jewish name is, and it would mean a lot to my husband's relatives if we named after him. I also know that they'd be very amenable to use picking a Jewish name that had a similar meaning--to them, that would also feel like we'd named after him.

From what I've found, the most direct translation of Ian is "grace" or "compassion", which would have a Hebrew equivalent of Chanan or Elchanan. Problem is, we don't love "ch" names, so we're reluctant to use those.

I'd love any suggestions for names with a similar meaning without a "ch" in them. Alternately, if you can think of other ways to "hebraicize" Ian, I'd love suggestions for that as well. Thank you!

Gold Member Joined: Nov 01 2010 Posts: 1687

That's a hard one because the other logical direction to go would be Menachem (compassion) and such which also have the ch...

Silver Member Joined: Aug 08 2010 Posts: 795

How about Ilan.

Hannan?

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 04 2008 Posts: 7947

Chanina - grace
Rachamim- compassion
I like Ilan as a solution! The emphasis is on the first syllable (although I don't know why), so it sounds almost like Ian.

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8259

Hillel? (we named our daughter Tehila/Grace)

Ian is also a nickname for Sebastian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_(name)
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Gold Member Joined: May 09 2010 Posts: 2125

Ian is the Scottish form of John, which is Yochanan. I'd stick with that because I think its an awesome name Smile

but maybe you could go with Yonatan instead - its all sort of Johnny-ish.
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Executive Member Joined: Jan 03 2011 Posts: 416

IAN is the Scottish equivalent of the English JOHN. So I'd say Yonatan.

Active Poster Joined: Feb 10 2011 Posts: 54

Noam means graciousness more or less.

Gold Member Joined: Nov 16 2010 Posts: 1439

grace- baruch
compassion-nachum

Actually, the emphasis in Ilan is only on the "I" when an English speaker says it...same with many Hebrew names, and it's a function of which syllable is emphasized overall in the language. It should be I-lan, with the emphasis on the 2ND syllable.
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Executive Member Joined: Dec 27 2011 Posts: 419

Ilan/Elon. My brother's name. Great name!

Active Poster Joined: Jan 31 2010 Posts: 93

Nachman?

I immediately thought of Ian/Elan sounding so similar and I just like the meaning of Elan and it happens to remind me of my relative, Ian (however his Hebrew name is Eliyahu).

If Ian is a name with no obvious Hebrew/Yiddish roots than why is it so popular among secular Jews? (Just curious.)

Is there no way to research the Hebrew name? I went into a tizzy two pregnancies ago regarding unknown (and in some cases what turned out to be incorrectly assumed Hebrew names) and through a bit of research was able to make a nice family tree of names, in some cases complete with headstone pictures, to pass down to my children and along to relatives who don't bother to remember names (pet-peeve of mine).
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