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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:SMURF::FENSTER
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1524
Total number of notes:18709

1071.0. "Yiddish names for Girls?" by SUBWAY::SPECTOR (David HM Spector) Thu May 16 1991 07:49

    Does anyone have a list of YIDDISH names for girls...?
    
    A friend of mine is expecting and is looking for (strictly) Yiddish
    names (don't ask me why... that's her request..)
    
    Thanks In Advance,
          _David 
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1071.1"Yiddish" or perhaps "Jewish" ...???TAV02::CHAIMSemper ubi Sub ubi .....Thu May 16 1991 17:0212
    Does she mean "Yiddish" name as referring to the language, or perhaps she
    means "Jewish" name?
    
    Here are several actual "Yiddish" names:
    
    Gita
    Hinda
    Sheindel
    Feige
    Bryna
    
    Cb.
1071.2TACT04::SIDThu May 16 1991 17:5712
Also:
Raisel, Liba, and just about any of the female characters
from Fiddler on the Roof (Yenta, Golda, Hoddel (?), Fruma, etc.)

:-)

By the way, did anyone ever notice that among our European ancestors
of a few generations ago, the women have almost exclusively Yiddish
names and the men have Hebrew names?  How many of you third-generation
Americans out there have grandmothers with Hebrew names?

Sid
1071.3NOTIME::SACKSGerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085Thu May 16 1991 19:0510
There is a book that lists Hebrew and Yiddish names.  Anyplace that does
invitations should have it -- it's how they check spellings.  Most women's
names that end in ayin, aleph, or lamed are probably Yiddish.

You could take .-1 to heart and ask every Ashkenazi on the BAGELS mailing list
what their grandmother's name was.  (Doesn't work for me -- both of mine
had Hebrew names).

BTW, nobody's mentioned one of my favorites, Shprintza ;-).
It's supposed to be derived from the Spanish Esperanza (Tikva?).
1071.4NODEX::GREENLong Live the Duck!!!Thu May 16 1991 21:2410
    
    The Hebrew teachers complained that my sister's hebrew name
    was actually Yiddish..
    
    Mariasha  
    
    I think it is pretty!  Maybe this is the Hebrew-ized version?
    Does this look Hebrew or Yiddish to people?
    
    Amy
1071.5Grandmother's namesDECSIM::HAMAN::GROSSThe bug stops hereThu May 16 1991 21:4010
RE: .2

You are right! This 3rd generation member always wondered why his grandmother
was Yetta and grand aunt was Musha Feigle (sp?).

My wife is also 3rd generation and her "Hebrew" name is Shana Freidle (sp?).
Her sister also has a Yiddish "Hebrew" name (something like Yudie Bustle).
I guess Grandpa must have had a hand in picking those names.

Dave
1071.6Yes, Yiddish names...SUBWAY::SPECTORDavid HM SpectorFri May 17 1991 03:118
    re .1
    
    She means  Yiddish, as in language...  she knows lots of Hebrew names
    (not suprising considering she's Jewish, as am I..), but neither of us
    speaks enuf' Yiddish to know a lot of Yiddish names.
    
    	_David
    
1071.7Can you do a "select"?GRANPA::AFRYDMANFri May 17 1991 16:474
    Does she have any preference for an initial letter?  That would keep us
    from listing everything from Aydel to Zlota.
    
    Av
1071.8ShaynaSWAM2::PLAUT_MIFri May 17 1991 20:102
    My daughter's name is Shayna, which comes from the Yiddish for pretty.
    
1071.9QUOKKA::SNYDERWherever you go, there you areFri May 17 1991 20:518
    My daughter's name is also Shayna, but she was named for my father's
    sister, whose name was Nacha.  At her naming, where the rabbi wanted a
    Hebrew name, he suggested (and we had no objection to) Nachama Shayna.
    
    Another sister's name (Father's sister) was Gitla.  All of the parents'
    female relatives had Yiddish names.  (I'm first generation American.)
    
    Sid
1071.10Another SuggestionCSCMA::GILDERSun May 19 1991 23:5113
    My Yiddish name is Aesna-Kaila.  I cannot spelled in Yiddish.  BTW
    it's a great a.k.a. because initials are the same.  If I'm at a
    singles gathering and I don't want to give out my real name, Aesna
    is a great name because it really starts conversations.
    
    My real name is Adriane-Karen named for my great-grandfathers Abraham
    and Kenneth.
    
    Mazel Tov to your friends.
    
    Adriane Gilder
    CSCMA::Gilder
    dtn 237-7565
1071.11Yddish names of Latin and Greek extractionTAVIS::JUANMon May 20 1991 10:1922
    Names, as languages use to show the whereabouts of the people that live
    with them.

    I hope that I won't dissapoint anybody stating that Yente, one of the most 
    traditional Yiddish names, derives from the Italian Gentile (or gentle).
    Henia or Yenia, comes from Eugenia "well born" a greek name, in use in
    Russian and Spanish.

    It seems to me that Jews were more liberal with names for women, using
    the vernacular more than Hebrew; the same goes with Sephardic Jews:
    (I refer here to those that sepak Ladino) Luna (Moon), Fortuna, Gracia,
    etc. are usual names among them.

    As for Male Hebrew names, I can point out to a lot of names from Yiddish
    extraction: Berl, Hirsch (Herschl), Leib (even Arieh-Leib [Hebrew-Yiddish]).
    The puzzling thing to me is that most male-Yiddish names I remember are
    names of wild beasts - bear, deer and lion in the above examples.

    Regards,

    Juan-Carlos
 
1071.12NOTIME::SACKSGerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085Tue May 21 1991 19:145
Yiddish animal names usually go along with Hebrew names that are either
equivalent or related.  Dov Ber, Aryeh Leib, Tzvi Hersh are examples of
translations.  Yehuda Leib and Naftali Hersh are examples of related
names -- the Yiddish name is the translation of the symbol of the Hebrew
name.  For some reason, I've never heard of anyone named Yissachar Ezel.
1071.13All Ashkenazi, but no Yiddish names!NOVA::WASSERMANDeb Wasserman, DTN 264-1863Wed May 22 1991 21:234
    Re: grandparents... my grandmother's names are/were Marian (actually, 
    she was born Mary believe or not, and changed it later; Miriam in Hebrew),
    and Ernestine (Esther).  My grandfathers were Hy (Chaim) and Max
    (Mordechai).  Not a Yiddish name in the bunch!  Hmmmmm...
1071.14TACT04::SIDWed May 22 1991 23:2218
re .12
There are a lot of examples where a yiddish translation goes along
with the Hebrew names -- and not only animals: Menachem-Mendel,
Shraga-Feivel, and Yitzchak-Isaac are all combinations I heard
quite a bit in my brief tenure as a gabbai.

It's not all that different from today, when many people (at least
outside of Israel) have an English name they use for just about 
everything and a Hebrew name they use only to be called to the Torah or
for religious documents and (l'havdil) tombstones.  Perhaps it would
make sense to call people to the Torah also by their real names, such
as "Yaamod Sean Christopher Shlomo Chaim".  :-)

Incidentally, I believe a Jewish divorce contract (unlike a marriage
contract) lists all the names that the parties are known by, including 
English and nicknames.  This is to remove all doubt about who they are, 
(divorce is a much more serious business than marriage since an invalid
contract can lead to the sin of adultery [in a subsequent remarriage]).
1071.15maybe not such an unusual name after all?CADSYS::HECTOR::RICHARDSONThu May 23 1991 20:176
    re .14: I was interested to see that my husband (Paul YOUNG::Young) is
    not the only person named Shraga/Feivel.  He was actually named in
    Yiddish; the Hebrew name (which I happen to like) was given later.  I
    don't think I know anyone else named Shraga.
    
    /Charlotte (Gevorah)
1071.16Yet Another Shraga Feivel Yet Another Shraga-Feivel TAVENG::MOTISun May 26 1991 16:525
re .15: My father-in-law's name is Shraga-Feivel. His wife calls him Feivel,
        my daughter call him Sabba (Grandfather) Shraga, while my father,
        who likes long names, makes a point of always calling him Shraga-Feivel.

Moti
1071.17The mistery of Shraga-FeivelTAVIS::JUANMon May 27 1991 12:5413
    Shraga-Feivel is a traditional Juxtaposition of names, juat as common
    as Nephtali-Hirsch (e.g.: Nephtali-Hirsch Imber, the author of the words
    for Hatikva) or Yehuda-Leib, etc.

    While the later associations have a Biblic background coming from Jacob's
    blessings to his sons [Yehuda (Judah) is likened to a lion (Leib in Yiddish)
    and Nephtali to a deer (Hirsch in Yiddish)], I couldn't find the origin
    or the explanation for the juxtaposition of Shraga-Feivel.

    Regards,

    Juan-Carlos.