u/SolomiyaRabin

The reason I even started looking at naming subreddits was because I thought it would be fun to share about the names from my culture, and my family, so that people could learn about them. But at this point, I feel like it makes me uncomfortable, because they're so hostile to Jewish names while at the same time, behaving like they love all names from all cultures.

I was looking at a post by an Israeli, who didn't even say anything about Israel, on one of the main ones asking about English names. Their name was Yam, never asked for opinions about their current name, just suggestions that could be used instead of it.

Then of course, one of the top comments offered zero suggestions, and said "Just tell them I yam what I yam" When they said it wasn't funny and they don't want people making fun of their name, they just want suggestions, they said "Girl, just ignore my comment, no need to keep interacting with me" despite the fact THEY were commenting on their post and said "It was a light hearted joke, there’s Filipinos that name their kids American food names and it’s not a big deal, there’s lots of apples and cherry’s around" even though they had explicitly said that didn't come from the food, it was Hebrew, and it was pronounced differently. And then continued to claim it was the same thing and they're not doing anything.

And then cue the other responses, calling her a bitch, saying people make these types of comments about English names too and it's not a big deal, and that it's just a joke and it's 'incredibly sensitive' to not like people joking about your name. And of course there were multiple free Palestine comment on top of that as well as other vegetable jokes. The fact that all of these comments have been left, that says a lot about the moderator as well and what they want people saying on there.

And sure, I've seen much worse. But it's the fact that a few days ago, on the same subreddit, someone who was from Scandinavia made a very similar post about the name Hjördis, and they were told by everyone that their name was beautiful, Americans should learn to pronounce it, and that it was the coolest name ever. And not a single dumb joke.

I get that obviously people aren't the biggest fans of us right now, doesn't take much to see that, but why are even our names getting weird reactions at this point? It's making me feel like I can't even say much because they'll say they love these Jewish names and they love learning about names from other cultures and then go and behave like that. If you noticed that, did you just stop interacting with those groups?

I'm just not really sure what to do because I like sharing Yiddish names, I'm a Yiddish speaker, but I feel like I'm seeing how they really feel about Jews and I'm not sure if I should even be spending time there.

Recently, I had made a post about Yiddish names, as my family and I speak Yiddish, and I learnt that actually, a lot of people hadn't heard of most Yiddish names, and if they did know any, a lot of the time they did not realise they were Yiddish, or what they mean.

So I thought I would write about some of the names I know, so people can learn a little bit about them and what they mean, so in the future, they will be recognised, and maybe used more as well!

These are the names of my siblings. I did not choose them but they are some of the names that I am the most familiar names when it comes to meaning, since that was discussed a lot, and they are often family names too, so they have a long history for us. So for me, they were good names to start with.

Zelig

This means blessed or happy. If you know German, you probably know the word selig, and this is basically the same thing. It is similar to a virtue name, because we believe that the meaning of a name is really important, and connected to who you are as a person. So a baby named Zelig is expected to live a fortunate and happy life. And the feminine counterpart, which is also more well known, is Zelda.

Dreiza

This has Slavic origins, which is more unusual. It most likely came from a word that means precious and loved, which aligns with a lot of names that either originated as terms of endearment, or from something that is precious. That is a very common theme.

Zissa

This is a good example of a name that was a term of endearment. It comes from the Yiddish word for sweet, and was first used as nickname, usually Zissel because 'El' as an ending is dimunitive and means little. What some people don't know is because of that, Zissel is actually a gender neutral name. But Zissa is more feminine, and my parents preferred that, although it's probably less common.

Liba

I think that this is the one that a lot of people would think of when they think of Yiddish names, as it used to be very common. It comes from the Yiddish word for love, but people are also familiar with it because of the German word for love, liebe. Unsurprisingly, they are related! This makes the name mean love, or loved. Her and Zissa are twins, so I think the meanings suit each other well.

Rochma

This comes from the Hebrew name Ruchama. It means love and mercy, and is connected to the idea of rachamim, which is one of the thirteen attributes of mercy. It is considered similar to the love that a mother has for her child. And Rochma is a Yiddish variation of the name, which is common because of changes in sounds with the Yiddish language compared to Hebrew.

Gershom

This is from Hebrew, and unlike Rochma, there aren't really any major changes in the name. It means stranger or exile, because he was the first son of Moses, and he was born after he had left Egypt, and was displaced. While it isn't Yiddish itself, it was used among ancestors and other people my family have known, and I think that's because it has a meaning that resonated a lot, and as I said, they are important. To make it more confusing, there is also a common name, Gershom, but he was the son of Levi!

Rozsha

This is a family name, and I think it disturbs a lot of English speakers at first. But we are pretty sure that as it appears, it is a form of Rosa or Roza, but it was also an attempt to make it closer to the Hungarian name Rózsa. It's a good example of the variety of names because there is so much influence from many countries. Roses are another popular meaning, with the Yiddish name Raisa, and its other forms like Raisel. There are also several Hebrew names that mean rose too, so Rose and Rosa were popular secular names for Ashkenazi Jews because they had good equivalent names they could use.

Melech

This means king in Hebrew. It's not very common among most Jewish communities because if you speak Hebrew as your main language, it can seem kind of cringey since that is what it means in everyday life too as a word. But it was more common among Yiddish speakers and I think that would be why. It's also part of longer names like Elimelech, who was the husband of Naomi.

Shprintza

This means hope, and the reason for this is more unusual. It's thought that it came from the name Esperanza, which is Spanish and also means hope. It may have come to Ashkenazi Jews and ended up in Yiddish because of contact with Sephardic Jews who originally lived in Spain. And this is good because without it, there wouldn't really be any Yiddish names that mean hope, even though that is often a meaning that resonates with people.

If I have made any mistakes, since English isn't my first language, and it's very possible that I may have! Thank you for reading 😊

And to clarify what I mean by 'Yiddish names', to me, there are two things that can mean. One is names that come from the Yiddish language itself, and the other is names that are popular among Yiddish speakers. For this, I mean the latter, because to me the naming culture goes beyond the names that are only from the language! But that's why I specified what language each name was from.

I thought that often, it seems people are here to learn more about names, and names from other cultures, but often that is overlooked for baby names.

So I thought that it would be nice for people to share something about naming in their culture, something that other people might not know about, so that other people can learn something new. Especially if your names are not talked about or shared very often.

I am Ashkenazi Jewish, a Yiddish speaker, and this is a name that I have learnt about which I find very interesting.

The name is Alter for boys and Alte or Alta for girls. It means old. And you might think, that is a strange meaning.

But the reason is that sometimes, if a baby was born and they were unwell, the parents would give them this name or change their name to that, with the belief that it would trick the Angel when they came for the child that they were not the same person, as they were looking for a child, not an old man or old woman. And therefore, the child would live.

There are other names believed to protect a child in this way, such as Chaim or Chaya, which both mean life. They can also be seen as a blessing that they will live a long life. You can probably tell that meanings are very significant, and they are seen to be very closely connected to your soul and the type of person that you are.

I am from Ukraine, and Yiddish is my first language. It is the language my family has always spoken. If you are not very religious in specific communities, it is not very common to be a native speaker, so this is rare, but for my family and the community we are from, it's important to keep it alive.

If you don't know what Yiddish is, it's the language that was spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It has influence from German mainly and Hebrew, but also some Slavic languages. Some of the words in English that you might have heard of that are influenced by Yiddish are glitch, klutz, spiel, and chutzpah. So you might have even spoken a little bit of Yiddish without knowing it!

With our language, we also have our own names and our own naming traditions. They are influenced by Hebrew names and Jewish naming traditions, but also the languages and countries that my people have lived in.

Most of my family have Yiddish names, and people I have known too. A lot of Yiddish names are rare now, even among Jews, because they are usually seen as old-fashioned or outdated. So they don't get talked about very much. But I think that a lot of them are very beautiful and I wish more people knew about our names and our culture.

So I am doing this. I don't know everything that there is to exist, of course that would be impossible, so I can't claim to know the answer to everything, but I can tell you all that I know. And hopefully it will mean that you can learn something that you might not have known about Yiddish names.

Her first name is going to be Shprintza which means hope. She's very special and important to us and brought hope to our family so that is why her name was chosen.

Unfortunately after she was born, she was found to have cystic fibrosis. But she will keep her name because now I think hope has an even bigger meaning for both her and us.

But she does need a middle name. I think it would be really good for the meaning of it to go well with hope so her whole name has a good meaning that might mean something to her too when she's older.

My sister has suggested Tosia, which means priceless or valuable. We also have Matilda, might and strength in battle, Eden (Eh-Den, not Ee-Den), delight, Menucha, rest and tranquillity, Liliya, lily, and Maya, water. Some new ideas would be nice too because I don't know if any of them are her yet. Thank you!