Editing Jewish name

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{{for multi|Hebrew given names|Hebrew name|Jewish family names|Jewish surname}}
'''Jewish names''', specifically one's given name, have varied over time and by location and [[Jewish ethnic divisions|ethnic group]]. Other types of names used by Jewish people include the [[Jewish surname|surname]] and the religious name known as the Hebrew name. 

== Given names ==
Given names, also known as "first names," have a range of customs within different Jewish ethnic groups. Common given names, however, remain similar in many parts of the Jewish community, with many of them based on figures in the [[Hebrew Bible]] or honoring relatives.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Naming Practices |url=https://www.kveller.com/article/jewish-naming-practices/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Kveller |language=en}}</ref> These are distinguished from the Hebrew name, which retained the original formulation of Jewish names.

=== Sephardi customs ===
Sephardim have often named newborn children in honor of their living grandparents. This practice typically uses these names in a specific order: the father's father, the father's mother, the mother's father, the mother's mother.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Naming Traditions |url=https://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/givennames/slide7.html |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=www.jewishgen.org}}</ref>

=== {{anchor|Yiddish name}}Ashkenazi customs ===
In stark contrast to Sephardi customs, Ashkenazim have a longstanding [[superstition]] about naming a child after a living person. Instead, only a deceased relative's name may be used. According to this superstition, naming a child after a living person could appear as though you are waiting for that person to die. This practice is rooted in Jewish custom and has no standing in Jewish law.<ref>{{Cite web |title=named after non-Jewish grandparents Archives |url=https://www.ccarnet.org/responsa-topics/named-after-non-jewish-grandparents/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Central Conference of American Rabbis |language=en-US}}</ref> While not many Jewish people necessarily believe in the superstition per se, the lack of precedence makes practices such as a (living) father naming his son after himself an unusual occurrence for Ashkenazim.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Jewish Names - Judaism 101 (JewFAQ) |url=https://www.jewfaq.org/jewish_names#Surnames |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=www.jewfaq.org}}</ref>

A peculiarity of [[Yiddish]] names for [[Ashkenazi Jews]] was recording legal names in diminutive form. These diminutive forms could be either [[hypocoristic]]s (pet names) or deprecative.  This tradition was more widespread for female names rather than for male names. There was a wide variety of suffixes added to a normative form of the name. Depending on the country of residence, the suffixes were borrowed into Yiddish, e.g., from German, Russian, Polish, Belarusian, etc. languages. In many cases these suffixed were used to create nicknames from regular words.<ref name=jege>[https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/givennames/yidnames.htm 5.2.  YIDDISH NAMES] from the project "GIVEN NAMES, JUDAISM, AND JEWISH HISTORY" of [[JewishGen]]</ref>
Some examples: [[Leiba]], Leibuța (Romanian-language) from [[Leib]], Berele or Bereleyn from [[Berl]]/[[Berel]], Khaytsi, Chayka from [[Chaya (Hebrew given name)|Chaya]], Rivka from Riva which itself was from [[Rebecca (given name)|Rebecca]], [[Motke]], Mordkhe, or Mordka from [[Mordechai]], Feygele, [[Faygele]] from Feigl/Foigl ("bird", which could also be used as a female name), etc.

''See also'' [[pleonasm#Bilingual tautological expressions|Bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish tautological names]]

== Surnames ==
While many surnames are associated with Jewish people in the United States, there are only three surnames rooted in ancient Jewish culture: [[Kohen]] (or Cohen), [[Levi|Levy]], and [[Jacob|Israel]]. These names originate with the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel|Israelite tribes]] which bear the same name. Variations on these names are common and most often reflect different ways of [[Transliteration|transliterating]] the Hebrew version.<ref name=":1" />

Apart from these original surnames, the surnames of Jewish people of the present have typically reflected family history and their ethnic group within the Jewish people. [[Sephardic Jews|Sephardic]] communities began to take on surnames in the [[Middle Ages]] (specifically c.10th and 11th centuries), and these surnames reflect the languages spoken by the Sephardic subset of the Jewish diaspora, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] communities of Northern and Eastern Europe, however, did not take on surnames until later (c.14th and 15th centuries). As with many other European communities, it was not unusual for a surname of this time period to reflect patrilineal relationships (e.g. Abraham's son --> [[Abramson]], Abramsohn, etc.).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=1956-09-01 |title=Jewish Surnames Through the Ages:An Etymological History |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/benzion-kaganoff/jewish-surnames-through-the-agesan-etymological-history/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Commentary Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Hebrew name ==
The Hebrew name is a Jewish practice rooted in the practices of early Jewish communities and [[Judaism]].<ref name=":1" /> This Hebrew name is used for religious purposes, such as when the child is called to read the Torah at their [[Bar and bat mitzvah|b'nei mitzvah]]. 

The baby's name is traditionally announced during the ''[[brit milah]]'' (circumcision ceremony) for male babies, typically on the eighth day after his birth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Circumcision- Brit Milah |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/circumcision-brit-milah |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> Female babies may also have a naming ceremony, known by several different names, including ''[[zeved habat]], b'rit bat'', and ''b'rit chayim''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=B'rit Bat: Ceremony for Welcoming a Baby Girl {{!}} Reform Judaism |url=https://www.reformjudaism.org/beliefs-practices/lifecycle-rituals/birth-rituals/brit-bat-ceremony-welcoming-baby-girl |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=www.reformjudaism.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=La Fijola: Naming Baby Girls at Home · Exploring Sephardic Life Cycle Customs · Exploring Sephardic Life Cycle Customs |url=https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/sephardic-life-cycles/la-fijola |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=jewishstudies.washington.edu}}</ref> This may be held between 7 and 30 days after her birth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcoming Baby Girls Into Judaism |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/welcoming-baby-girls-into-judaism |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

The Hebrew name follows a particular format that reflects gender:<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Are Hebrew Names Formatted? {{!}} Reform Judaism |url=https://reformjudaism.org/learning/answers-jewish-questions/how-are-hebrew-names-formatted |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=reformjudaism.org |language=en}}</ref>

* Male: [Hebrew given name] ''ben'' [parents' Hebrew given names]
** Example: Abraham ''ben'' David ''v{{'-}}''Sarah
* Female: [Hebrew given name] ''bat'' [parents' Hebrew given names]
** Example: Leah ''bat'' David ''v{{'-}}''Sarah
* Neutral: [Hebrew given name] ''mibeit'' or ''mimishpachat'' [parents' Hebrew given names]
** Example: Lior ''mibeit'' David ''v{{'-}}''Sarah OR Lior ''mimishpachat'' David ''v{{'-}}''Sarah

The chosen Hebrew name can be related to the child's secular given name, but it does not have to be. The name is typically [[List of biblical names|Biblical]] or based in [[Modern Hebrew]].

For those who convert to Judaism and thus lack parents with Hebrew names, their parents are given as [[Abraham]] and [[Sarah]], the first Jewish people of the Hebrew Bible. Those adopted by Jewish parents use the names of their adoptive parents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Picking a Hebrew Name {{!}} American Jewish University |url=https://www.aju.edu/miller-intro-judaism-program/learning-portal/picking-hebrew-name |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=www.aju.edu}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[List of Jewish nobility]]
* [[Family name etymology]]
* [[Jewish Encyclopedia]] articles
* [[Zeved habat]]
* [[Hollekreisch]]
* [[Brit milah]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{JewishEncyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=N&artid=51|article=Names (Personal)}}
*{{cite book|last1=Schreiber|first1=Mordecai|last2=Schiff|first2=Alvin I.|last3=Klenicki|first3=Leon|title=The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DK5K72JymAEC&pg=PA190|year=2003|publisher=Schreiber Pub.|isbn=978-1-887563-77-2|chapter=Names}}
*{{cite book|last=Weiss|first=Nelly|title=The origin of Jewish family names: morphology and history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6i4XAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=P. Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-5644-7}}
* G. Buchanan [[Gray]], ''Hebrew Proper Names'', London, 1898;
* [[T. Nöldeke]], in ''Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.'' (with extensive bibliography). Talmudic: [[Schorr]], in ''[[He-Halutz (magazine)|He-Ḥaluẓ]]'', vol. ix.;
* [[Hirsch Perez Chajes]], ''Beiträge zur Nordsemitischen Onomatologie'';
* [[Bacher]], in ''R. E. J.'' xiv. 42–47. Modern: ''Andræe, Zur Volkskunde der Juden'', pp.&nbsp;120–128;
* [[Leopold Zunz|Zunz]], ''Namen der Juden'', in Ges. Schriften, ii. 1-82;
* [[Löw]], ''Lebensalter'', pp.&nbsp;92–109;
* ''Orient, Lit.'' vi. 129–241; vii. 42, 620;
* [[Steinschneider]], in ''Hebr. Bibl.'' pp.&nbsp;556, 962;
** idem, in ''Z. D. M. G.'' xxxii. 91;
* [[Hyamson]], ''Jewish Surnames'', in ''Jewish Literary Annual'', 1903, pp.&nbsp;53–78;
* M. Sablatzky, ''Lexikon der Pseudonymen Hebr. Schriftsteller'', [[Berdychev]], 1902.
* ''What’s in a Name? 25 Jewish Stories''. [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]], 2022, ISBN 978-3-907262-34-4 

== External links ==
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Hebrew_given_names List of Hebrew given names at Wiktionary]
* [http://www.zchor.org/TRADE.HTM GABIN List of Jewish surnames, from a Polish Business Directory]
* [https://www.bh.org.il/databases/family-names/names-beta-israel-ethiopia/ Family Names of the Jews of Ethiopia - The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]
* [http://www.my-hebrew-name.com My Hebrew Name Database]
* [http://www.businessinsider.com/origins-of-popular-jewish-surnames-2014-1 Origins of a number of Ashkenazi Jewish surnames]

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{{Personal names by culture}}

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