Dina or Dalia: opinions

amother

Bellflower

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 6:26 am

I love the name Dalia but in my circles we only do biblical or Yiddish names. A cool girl in my modern orthodox elementary has the name Dalia. I don’t like the Dina- din comnection or her story in the Torah. I’d pick dahlia if I were in less yeshivish circles

↑ dankbar

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 8:33 am

The poll might be skewed because of the demographics here. If mostly the crowd is chassidish, then Dalia is very rare and Dina is normal, so that would reflect in the poll same for yeshivish, which I don't know if Dalia is common there.

#BestBubby

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 9:11 am

amother Dodgerblue wrote:

There are many others not like them who just have the baby circumcised at the hospital. That’s going way off topic. If you don’t want to give your baby a Jewish name, as the parent, it’s your choice.

When my DD was born 30+ years ago, my hospital roommate was planning on having a hospital circumcision.

I am proud that I persuaded her to have a kosher bris. My cousin was the mohel.

( Don't know if they gave a Jewish name)

amother

Salmon

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 9:25 am

I like Dini Smile

amother

↑ Forsythia

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 1:05 pm

amother Red wrote:

I like Dina. Don’t like the name Dalia. Or Talya in the same way. Sounds a bit Russian to me.

Tanya is a Russian name I think, so guess Talya sounds Russian by association!

amother

↑ Catmint ↓

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 2:09 pm

dankbar wrote:

Is there any indication that most of the crowd is Chassidish?

amother

DarkYellow

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:23 pm

Dalia is a beautiful name.
I would never name my daughter Dina or Tamar.

amother

↑ White ↓

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:36 pm

amother Catmint wrote:

Is there any indication that most of the crowd is Chassidish?

I don't think there are official numbers, but in polls where people say what sect they identify with chassidish is usually (always?) the largest group represented

amother

Lightgreen

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:38 pm

amother OP wrote:

I am between these two names, both feel like they are too traditional to the point of being old school, but I am thinking maybe they are old school in a cool way, like Chloe or Phoebe in a non-Jewish world…
What do you think? Should work both in Israel and chutz, modern chareidi circles.

Dina is way more Yeshivish than Dahlia. Dahlia is more out of the box

amother

↑ Catmint ↓

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:43 pm

amother White wrote:

I don't think there are official numbers, but in polls where people say what sect they identify with chassidish is usually (always?) the largest group represented

Based on?

amother

↑ White ↓

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:44 pm

amother Catmint wrote:

Based on?

just self-reporting

amother

↑ Catmint ↓

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:45 pm

amother White wrote:

just self-reporting

Of an individual poster? Or a poll or something similar?

amother

↑ White

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:47 pm

amother Catmint wrote:

Of an individual poster? Or a poll or something similar?

polls -- every so often someone will ask about demographics and people will click whatever community they're a part of. in all the ones I've seen, the chassidish number is much larger than any other

amother

↑ Catmint

Wed, Dec 04 2024, 10:54 pm

amother White wrote:

polls -- every so often someone will ask about demographics and people will click whatever community they're a part of. in all the ones I've seen, the chassidish number is much larger than any other

Interesting

amother

Snowdrop

Sun, Dec 08 2024, 6:06 pm

amother Dodgerblue wrote:

If at the bris the person calling out the name says it’s shulchan then you’re right, that’s your son’s name. You didn’t give him a Jewish name with a mesora though, and that’s something every child needs.
There’s a mohel at a bris and he’s generally a learned person. Dh’s good friend is a mohel and sometimes does a bris for families that are far removed from Judaism. First he makes sure the mother is Jewish. He also makes sure the baby gets a Jewish name. He’s been asked to name the baby non Jewish names. He tells the parents they can call him what they want but at the bris their baby’s getting a Jewish name. It’s happened that they’re so far from anything that they have no ideas and ask him to choose the name, which he does. If they asked him to name the baby shulchan he’d probably not do that. Similarly at a Torah reading there’s a gabbai, a baal koreh and usually a rabbi present and they won’t allow you to name your baby chultzah.

I am also curious about naming practices - why does every child need a name with a mesora? I understand names from Tanach, we love those. But what decides which names have mesora beyond that? Dov is a classic but since when? Not from Tanach. Zahava is generally well accepted, but where/when does it originate? Do names in Hebrew that are meaningful (e.g., Orly) or are words in Tanach (I.e., Tal) bad for the child because there is no mesorah? What if their grandmother or grandfather had these names, does that count as mesorah? Or how did yiddish names become part of the mesorah even though they aren't all that old or in lashon hakodesh? I'm just so confused by what the rules are and would really love to know more. In my circles, the rabbis don't really have special knowledge on baby names (beyond the halachot of how to name a baby, but not about the historical mesorah or lack thereof for certain names) and wouldn't really have information on this.

Also, I voted Dalia. Dina definitely has mesorah, but the story with her in Tanach always made me too uncomfortable to use the name (though it is a beautiful name and I know some really lovely Dinas). Plus I like that Dalia has a softer sound to my ears.

amother

Jetblack

Sun, Dec 08 2024, 6:17 pm

I like names from tanach in general. Happens to be that all the Dina’s I know are very nice, happy people so I sort of associate that name with nice people
I do not like the name Dalia. Sorry. I wouldn’t tell you that if I knew you so I guess I can get away with it here…
The only Dalias I know of are not frum so I would never be okay with that name.

amother

Firethorn

Sun, Dec 08 2024, 8:04 pm

My sil name is Dalia. She went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky and he said the same thing as a different poster said it's not a real name so she changed her name.