Where do Yiddish names come from?

amother

↑ Whitesmoke

Thu, Dec 19 2024, 11:56 am

imaima wrote:

„But my father already“ is pretty shallow. It is basically your father‘s thing that he just started for your generation. Your ancestors did use Yiddish names.
What makes one a Yiddish speaker?
We don’t need to speak Yiddish in everyday life but we use many Yiddish words (who doesn’t?) and my husband’s family is fluent in Yiddish (while no need to use it now).

Huh? Really don't understand what you're getting at here. I prefer not to give my kids Yiddish names, why do I need a deep reason for that? The reasons I posted are all true. And even if we do use some Yiddish words in our daily lives, again, what is your point? The names would still have no meaning to us just because we know a few random words like tzefloigin or shlemazel. How is that called speaking Yiddish? My kids and I don't understand the language. Full stop. I have a total of two or three far-off ancestors with Yiddish names, that's not the same as "your ancestors used Yiddish names", which makes it sound like they ALL did, and I'm randomly stopping the practice.

Is it a mitzvah to specifically give Yiddish names?

From the reactions to my posts, it seems many posters think it is.

↑ zaq

Today at 10:32 am

amother Opal wrote:

So interesting. I know 3 Revas, not sure what language it originates from.

Is Baylie its own name or is it from Bayla? Also, what is the source for either or both being Aramaic?

Also, someone mentioned Shraga Feivel, which is interesting, because Shraga is Aramaic, and Feivel is Yiddish. But they make a pair like many Hebrew/Yiddish combinations.

Reva is a corruption of Rivka.