What does Pnina mean? Question re combining names

Two questions;
What does Pnina mean?
What is the most popular way to spell Brocha in english?
has anyone heard of not mivxing names of two people unless you intend to use both of them?

Gold Member Joined: Jul 26 2009 Posts: 1487

Pnina means "pearl" in English.

I think Bracha is the most popular way (I know 3 people who spell it like that) but I also know a Brocha.

I'm not sure what you mean by that last question.

Yes. Many people do not use more than one name unless they are going to use both of them. I'm not sure what the source and reason is for that.

Usually, when we give a name we give one person's name.

With my last child, my husband asked his Rebbe (Amshinover) about adding a name to the name "Dovid", the Rebbe said something about it being "done" but that the name Dovid is so powerful and special that it would be taking away from it.
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Executive Member Joined: Aug 23 2009 Posts: 398

Naming after someone is supposed to be an aliya for them, I think, or maybe it's just a kavod, but either way, there is definitely an inyan to call a child after one person only, or to call them by all the names.

On the other hand, I'm named after 2 people, and my parents added a third name (by which I am called) because they didn't like either of those two. I have other siblings like that and my parents' rav never said anything about it.

So you should probably check with your rav to see if it's an issue for you.

Silver Member Joined: Jul 24 2009 Posts: 756

Penina means pearl.
Bracha can be spelled like that or Brocha.
Our Rav also advised us not to mix the names of 2 different people. By my DS we added a name to the person were naming after but we picked a name we liked rather than of a different family member.

Some can only give one name, some can only name after one person, some can combine several and/or several people, some need to call by all the names, some can use any name or a nickname. Voila.

Personally, in my family, you can do what you want (from what I noticed on the family tree and now). My dd has 3 Jewish names after 3 people. She's called by the first name or a nickname of the first name.
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Gold Member Joined: Sep 22 2009 Posts: 1451

I also heard shouldn't mix two ppls names.
but igave ny dd one of her names after someone and one name we loved.

Senior Member Joined: May 12 2008 Posts: 151

re: combining names. this was an issue for us when naming our daughter. when we spoke about it with a Rav we were told it depends on the family minhag. also, there was a difference between litvish and chassidish on this matter.