Short Dictionary of the Jewish Names

around 350 names

NAMES AND TRADITION

This small dictionary does not claim to be a complete set of encyclopedias or all of which were used Jewish personal names ever. His modest goal: open up the door to the world of Jewish anthroponimics Russian-speaking Jews who were brought up in an environment where the names of Abraham Haim and are perceived as obscene nicknames. Russian Jews, and I do not remember what the Hebrew name "Jewish" are the names of Loew, Boris, Rosa da Alla ...

Choosing a name - it is very important: the man and his name are one inseparable whole. Suffice it to say that God led the Hebrews out of Egypt, and also for the fact that they kept their Jewish names. In the darkness and filth of slavery in Egypt, many Jews lost their moral values, but they are not shy about their Jewish names - and were rescued.

In the Jewish tradition there are a number of rules relating to the names. We list the main ones.

Do not call the child a new name, that is a name that has not been worn by his ancestors.

There is an ancient custom of naming children the names of the immediate family: father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, etc. Among Ashkenazi Jews are not accepted to give the child the name of a person who is alive.

Widespread custom to give children the names of the patriarchs of the Jewish people, the great tzaddikim, prominent rabbis. It is believed that the merit and righteousness of the great man to help him who bears his name, to follow the true path of life.

Often the father giving his son the name of a man who has learned.

The Jews never called children names villains. Perhaps only in our enlightened times fighters against the Jewish tradition, do not hesitate to give their children names such as Nimrod (by name mentioned in the Tanach king who wanted to burn alive the forefather Avraham), Vladlen (from Vladimir Lenin) and Felix (named after Dzerzhinsky) ... The passion for "razed to the ground" has led to the fact that more innocent babies were given names such as Kim (Communist Youth International), Pyatvchet ("Five-Year Plan - a four-year"), Tractor, Lagshmivara (Camp Schmidt in the Arctic) , Leomar ("Lenin's weapon - Marxism"), Embryo and Dazdraperma ("Long live May Day").

Not customary to give a woman a man's name, and the female - male. Neglect of tradition in certain parts of Israel has led to the fact that these are found in the Tanakh men's names as Tikva, Ofra, Anat, Israel today is in no small number of women.

In the last century, the custom has spread to give the baby a double name. There are a number of established "couples": Yehuda Leib, Moshe Hayyim, Zvi Hirsch, Menahem-Mendl, etc. Often, one of the components of the double name - Hebrew name, the second - Yiddish, and they are connected either in the sense (for example, Zvi Hirsch: Zvi - "deer" in Hebrew, Hirsch-Yiddish Are Leib: are - "lion" in Hebrew , Life - in Yiddish) or by sound similarity (eg, Ephraim-Fischl, Menahem-Mendl, Yehoshua-Geshlja). In ancient times, double names were not given, except that the seriously ill added a second name. Since the era of the Middle Ages this name is usually Hayyim or Hai (in Sephardi and Oriental Jews), ie, "life", "alive."

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In today's Israel, most Jewish children are given names of two categories: traditional Jewish, the last test of centuries and contraption made from a particular Hebrew word. Rarely child "endows" foreign names like Jacqueline, Tanya Oliver, Jean, Mary, Lian, etc. Among the parents, overwhelmed by the love of a "romantic" non-Jewish names, a large part are recent immigrants.

Typically, the choice of a name depends directly on the degree of commitment to the traditional values ​​of the parents of the Jewish people: a deeply religious families you will meet children with the names of Oren, and Yaron Erez, in such families, children name Yitzchak, Shmuel Yaakov Yisrael ... If the family of her father's head adorns the "knit" pile, it is often the children are given the names of both species, some wearing the traditional Jewish names, while others - the names of newly invented or updated type Gilad, Yishai, Nachshon, Ronan. In non-religious families, a significant part of such children is their parents invented names like Ron and Guy, Iris and Orly. The "deevreizatsii 'names continues. Hearing the name Lilah or Smadar, would you think that its bearer - Jewish? But we must pay tribute to parents - new names are constructed on the basis of the Hebrew language, Hebrew, although quite often - and, of course, no accident - sounds perfectly on the American way. Judge: Americans will not have to break the language to pronounce names such as Ron, Run, Sharon, Gay, Tali.

We have included in our dictionary only names that are prevalent among Israeli Jews. It's no secret that the range of Jewish names in American or French Jews somewhat different and the degree of prevalence of one or the other name may be different than in Israel. Many Jews in the Diaspora generally are not Jewish names. In Russia, for example, to meet a Jew with a Jewish name, and all uncommon.

We included in the dictionary names of both categories: traditional and recently entered into circulation. For those interested in the Jewish anthroponyms dictionary will help to get acquainted with those and others. The one who picks up the name of the child (or yourself), it will, we hope, make the right choice.

Men's and women's names are listed separately. For each name gives the following information:

1. Writing in Hebrew.

2. Transcription name as close as possible (taking into account the peculiarities of Russian orthography) to the Hebrew pronunciation of the normative. In our opinion, was absolutely necessary to enter to send the letter ה Jewish accent "ƒ [1]", which should be pronounced as the Central European "h", ie, as the "h" in German, English and Czech languages ​​or as a Ukrainian " z ".

3. The sound of the spoken Hebrew language in Israel, if it is different from the norm. These differences are usually limited to the movement of an accent closer to the beginning of the word (which is mainly due to the influence of the tradition of Yiddish pronunciation of names).

4. Diminutive form, now common in Israel.

5. Time of occurrence. The letter "T" indicates that the name is mentioned in the Tanach (Bible) and, therefore, there was no later than the middle of the first millennium BC. e., "mt" - the name is known from the formation of the Mishnah and the Talmud (the middle of the first millennium BC. e. - VI century. district. e.), "a" - the name is well known in the Middle Ages (VII - XVI centuries. n . e.), "n" - the name emerged in modern times (most of the names in this category occurred in recent decades in Israel).

6. The prevalence of the name in modern Israel: rare (redk.), common (raspr.) and very common (very Eng.). The names included in the category of rare, are still some walking. Extremely rare, the carriers of which there are only a few hundred, are not included in the dictionary. How large are the differences in the prevalence of names, such examples show: the names of Moshe, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael are not less than one hundred thousand Israelis, and the owners of such names as Aviel or Amits there are only a few thousands, or even hundreds.

It should be noted that the prevalence of a name does not mean today what it has always been. Many of the names mentioned in the Tanakh, is rarely used for many centuries and have been put into use in the new time under the influence of Zionist ideology, calls for shake the dust "Galut of the past" with our feet. In search of "negalutnyh 'names alone set about inventing new, while others have turned to the Tanach. Therefore, a relatively widespread in modern Israel Avner names, or Alon Ehud, for example, has found in the Tanakh, is not evidence that these names were for centuries in the number of traditional Jewish names.

7. Translated meaning of the name. His task - to show the etymology of the name. So the translation (eg names or Noam Avino) is not always, perhaps, is elegant, but we believe that in this case, the accuracy is more important. In square brackets have words that are not in the name, but implied in the meaning. In cases where the putative translation, we put a question mark in parentheses, where the exact value is not known, and so specify.

It should be noted that women's names are in large part derived from the male or modified Hebrew word, which is attached to the feminine ending.

8. Notes. If the name had any of the outstanding sons of the Jewish people, we have noted this in the notes. If a number of great men were one and the same name, we noted only the first - time - of them. It is also noted in any community is more common or that the name and origin of the name if it is borrowed.

P. Gil