Baby Names
Cute article in the NY Times about the most pouplar names given to babies in NYC, and how they have changed as NYC becomes more and more diverse.
That is definitely a trend that I notice in the Orthodox community as well. Gone are the days when Moshes and Miriams sit in Yeshiva alongside Marks and Micheles. I don't know of one child in any of my three children's classes that uses an Anglo name. When I went to Yeshiva, on the other hand, I had regular playdates and sleepovers with girls by the name of Lisa, Leah, Chani, and Carrie. Definitely more of a mix of Anglo and Jewish names than I see today.
It's also a no-brainer that Jewish names would make it to the top 100, just for the sheer volume of children being born to Orthodox parents, as compared to many of their secular or non-Jewish counterparts.
In New York Cribs, Jeff and Lisa Give Way to Ahmed and ChayaExperts quoted in the article point out that the phenomenon has a lot to do with the willingness of today's ethnic groups to give a traditional name rather than use one of the anglo classics, that made "Michael" and "Emily" (still the most popular names) even more popular.
In the last several years, New York City has had more baby girls named Fatoumata than Lisa, more Aaliyahs than Melissas, more Chayas than Christinas. There have been more baby boys named Moshe than Peter, more Miguels than Jeffreys, more Ahmeds than Stanleys.
... The city's large Orthodox Jewish population has helped to push Moshe to No. 68 , Mordechai to 155 and Shlomo to 199.
That is definitely a trend that I notice in the Orthodox community as well. Gone are the days when Moshes and Miriams sit in Yeshiva alongside Marks and Micheles. I don't know of one child in any of my three children's classes that uses an Anglo name. When I went to Yeshiva, on the other hand, I had regular playdates and sleepovers with girls by the name of Lisa, Leah, Chani, and Carrie. Definitely more of a mix of Anglo and Jewish names than I see today.
It's also a no-brainer that Jewish names would make it to the top 100, just for the sheer volume of children being born to Orthodox parents, as compared to many of their secular or non-Jewish counterparts.
posted by orthomom at 8:42 PM
17 Comments:
Interesting post... I have a nickname, but I was always happy that my parents gave me my Jewish name as my 'real' name as opposed to some Anglicized version. Then again, I always find my friends who have Anglo names to have interesting ones which are more convenient in many cases. Hard to say which is better.
Frankly your post would not be so accurate -if you went further east in the 5 Towns-you see such classical Jewish names as Mather, Mark, Jason in use among day school attendees in the 5 Towns!!!!
That is definitely true. I made an observation about my kids' classes, which is a true one as well.
interestingly enough, the same thing happened historically in persia in ancient times around the era of their shivat tsiyon. business records dug up that span generations in a town in persia (i forget its name) with many jews show a steady progression as the Second Commonwealth is being rebuilt and succeeding of more and more Jewish individuals with Hebrew names, whose parents had Babylonian or Persian names.
Wow, Alan. Fascinating.
Another interesting issue is how we all define "Jewish" names. Many names that we consider Jewish -- thos names that our grandparents in Europe used -- are really yiddishized versions of Polish, Hungarian or Russian names. They are Jewish in the sense that they are identified as Jewish and are non-Anglo (which I suppose for the purpose of your post is the significant issue). I wonder if there are any patterns in the use of Biblical/Hebrew names vs. Yiddish/European names in our communities.
Biblical names aren't as common here as they are in Israel. Franky, I'd prefer a biblical name to some Jewified Polish name, especialy the females names. Yencha? Vilcha? Shprintza? Ugh.
My wife has cousins who named their kid(Are you ready for this?)
BIANCA.
hi. yet here in israel, at least in my more m.o. community, modern hebrew names take precedence. names such as "bar" (meadow), "shir-el" (g-d's song),noam and yuval (for girls), aviv, dvir, lavi, are the norm. tanachi names are less popular, unless one goes to places like bnei brak. but there, names are more eastern-european/yiddush in origin -- are they, with the exception of tanachi names, "jewish" names?
In a way, it seems nicer to have a name that actually has meaning than even a 'tanachi' name. I've always loved that my own name (Eliezer Chaim) means 'God has helped me live', when my mother had a very difficult pregnancy - and I think it reflects on my own life. My sister is Aviva Tova because my parents decided it was a great spring (June 22nd birthday), because of my sister's birth. My cousins switched their last names to Eliad: Aleph for his last name, Lamed for hers, Yud for Hashem, Ayin Daled for forever; to show they wanted to serve Hashem together forever.
The tanachi names, at least if one considers the shevatim and others, had meaning and a reason; why shouldn't ours?
The question of Biblical vs. Yiddish names is interesting. My first name is Abigail (not popular when I was born, but among the top 10 girls' names now). When she was told my name, my grandmother said "What kind of name is that?" by which she meant "That doesn't sound Jewish." My mother responded "It's in the Bible," and my grandmother said "Oh, okay." I don't think she would have asked if I had been named Yetta! Oddly, though, she gave all her children Biblical names -- she just didn't happen to know mine.
mdmom:
Great facet you bring up. I guess the fact that these names, though nontraditional, and in modern hebrew, are "Jewish" by virtue of the fact that they are in the hebrew language. But I'm not sure. Anyone have a different opinion?
two of my children have modern hebrew names (given to them while we lived in the states!)while one daughter has a name which appears in tanach but is modernish, popular, and very "israeli." i guess it depends on the meaning of the name. the name "shir-el" or "li-el" or any other name including the name of g-d would count as a modern yet jewish name. on the other hand, as we all learned as children in our pre-pesach studies, one of the saving graces of b'nei yisrael in yitziat mitzraim was our ancestors use of hebrew names for their children. were those names tanachi? what was tanachi then? many tanachi names are explained in the text, yet so many are not. we choose them sometimes because we simply like the sound of them, or because of what the person did, or stood for -- but somebody along the line came up with the original name and it stuck. and many of these names have origins outside of what is now the land of israel (ancient sumaria (sp?), for example) so i would say that an israeli name by it's virtue of being hebrew would also count as jewish.
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This is so cute, for example I named my child Petroncio Arbelinoso Scrupinajo I think that name is so cute, What do you think abut.
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