How would you write it?

SYA

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 7:25 pm

The Jews merited leaving Mitzrayim for three reasons one being keeping their Jewish name. We are careful to only use our children’s Hebrew names even on documents like a birth certificate.

amother

Blueberry

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 8:44 pm

Any of my kids that have an easy translation to an English name, I do that. It just makes life easier. So def Joseph. My oldest doesn’t but if I had another one without an easy translation I think I’d just make one up.

↑ ittsamother ↓

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 9:37 pm

I always find it interesting when people say having an English name makes life easier, because so far their Hebrew names on the BC have never caused a single bit of difficulty. So in what way would you think the Hebrew name would be more difficult than the English name?

↑ theoneandonly

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 9:52 pm

ittsamother wrote:

It's annoying to constantly have to spell out your name by doctors' office etc and have ppl constantly mispronounce it. On the other hand, it's annoying to remember that your legal name is a different name than the one you go by.

↑ ittsamother ↓

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 9:54 pm

theoneandonly wrote:

So many English names have multiple spelling variations too. Think Megan-Meghan, Katelyn-Caitlyn, etc. NonJews deal with mispronunciations all the time as well. Somehow they all just manage fine. Idk why we introduce English names into our lives at all when we have beautiful Jewish ones.

amother

↑ Babyblue

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 9:56 pm

theoneandonly wrote:

My name is Esther, the most basic name yet, both legally and socially, and I constantly have to spell it out.
It takes .2 seconds so I don’t mind.
no one mispronounces it, but I don’t think that would bother me either.

amother

Linen

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 11:52 am

My mother put my English name on the bc 50 yrs ago. Since it's the name on the insurance as well, it automatically became my name at the pediatrician's office.

Whenever they called me in the packed chassidish waiting room, I was mortified and blushed!

With the exception of Sarah, all my kids have their Hebrew names with their Yiddish havara. Devoiry, Hershy, the likes.

If non jews can have weird ethnic names, why as a proud jew can't I have mine?

imaima ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 12:00 pm

SYA wrote:

The Jews merited leaving Mitzrayim for three reasons one being keeping their Jewish name. We are careful to only use our children’s Hebrew names even on documents like a birth certificate.

An English equivalent is still a Hebrew name to me. Joseph for Yosef is good enough. It’s not like Jayden or something

↑ ittsamother ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 12:43 pm

imaima wrote:

An English equivalent is still a Hebrew name to me. Joseph for Yosef is good enough. It’s not like Jayden or something

How can an English name be Hebrew? Inherently it's not. The most you can say is that some people will still recognize it as a version of a Jewish name. But there are enough nonJewish Davids and Josephs and Abrahams that it's not necessarily defining of a Jewish person, and it's also not the name they'll read under the chuppah or when called to an Aliyah. So end of day I wouldn't want my child identifying themselves as Dave over Dovid in any circumstance. Let them be Dovid and proud of it!

amother

Peony ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 12:54 pm

My grandparents made my parents give us all non Jewish names as legal names.
They both bad big experiences during the war and feel the fact that their name was the most non Jew name is what helped save them.
My name is Sarah so it was the same, everyone else has the most similar name if there is no 'translation'.
I live in Israel so I haven't done it but majority of my siblings have.
One of my siblings in Israel managed to have them write on the passport the English way or added a 'silent' letter making it not look like a typical Jewish name.

↑ ittsamother ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 1:14 pm

amother Peony wrote:

Samantha Goldstein is still getting flagged right along with Shoshana Goldsmith : )
Also, hate to break it to you but these days there is so much information stored on everyone that "what kind of name do they have" is going to be the last thing they look at to determine who's Jewish. I mean, if you even have just a few transactions at a kosher supermarket, boom you're on their radar!

amother

↑ Peony

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 2:05 pm

ittsamother wrote:

It was long before the web was much of a thing, my grandfather has been gone for 5 yrs and was 100 when he was nifter.
When he named my father 74 yrs ago and told him to do that for his kids over 50 yrs ago he wouldn't have dreamed there is a way to find out all this information. My father just got a mitzvah every time he named one of his kids on the birth certificate.

↑ Ruchel

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 2:13 pm

ittsamother wrote:

David and David are the same in how I say it in my language. Léa and Léa. Sarah and Sarah. Esther and Esther.

↑ imaima ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 2:16 pm

ittsamother wrote:

It’s the name with the Jewish origin. It I don’t care how many non-Jews there are that have a Jewish name, it doesn’t make a name non-Jewish. It doesn’t sound like it does in Hebrew, well there are many ways to pronounce it in Hebrew too and who will claim that one Hebrew is more authentic or correct than the other?

↑ ittsamother ↓

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 2:17 pm

Ruchel wrote:

David and David are the same in how I say it in my language. Léa and Léa. Sarah and Sarah. Esther and Esther.

Clearly we're not talking about that, we have plenty as well. Miriam, Leah, Eli... We're talking about intentionally changing the spelling so that it looks like the secular version. Elijah instead of Eliyahu, Hannah instead of Chana, Eve instead of Chava.

↑ imaima

Mon, Nov 04 2024, 2:21 pm

Ruchel wrote:

David and David are the same in how I say it in my language. Léa and Léa. Sarah and Sarah. Esther and Esther.

Americans think they have the right to define what’s Jewish and what’s Hebrew