Question for the Jewish girls

I have a LOT of questions this morning!

How do you figure out Hebrew names for your DC? Do you pick them before birth? Are they supposed to be the same or similar to the person whom you are naming your DC after?

Also-if it is a girl, when are you supposed to do the baby naming by? Without giving up too much, I am trying to figure this out because we are not in state.

Thanks!

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

I'm not 100% on what you're "supposed" to do, but this is what we're doing. We're taking the exact hebrew name of the person we're naming after. Because that person died in his 30's, it's custom to also name after someone who died old. So his hebrew name will be after 2 people while his English name is just after one.

I think that it doesn't matter how long after the birth you have the baby naming for a girl. It's only important to have the Bris 8 days later.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

We also took the exact hebrew name of the person we are naming after, and we actually will give him two hebrew names , both of relatives passed.

A baby naming you can schedule whenever you like, it is usually done within the first year .

Also, in our case, are son is Jake ( Jacob) , and we know the hebrew translation to it. If you are giving the exact hebrew name of a relative , you can ask the next of kin OR your moyel/ rabbi to find out the exact translation.

If you select more of a modern name, they will give you the closest translation OR whatever the hebrew name of the person you are named after.

For example :I was named after a Birtha , by my middle name, which is Blyhte, the hebrew name iI was given is Bayla.

Message edited 7/10/2009 10:14:12 AM.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

When picking the hebrew name it doesn't have to correlate at all to the English name but it can. My hebrew name is Michal and my american name is Michelle (which is Michal in hebrew). For our little we are naming him after 2 grandparents in english and his hebrew name is a different grandparents hebrew name.

As far as a baby naming, I believe that there is no limit as to how long you can wait, most people do it sooner rather than later but I have seen baby namings for babies over 2 years old. HTH

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

The english and hebrew names don't have to coordinate. My husband is Israeli and has a hebrew name so with my DD her name is her Hebrew name too.

With my DS it will be a little different - we are naming him an english name that is named after a relative, his middle name MIGHT be hebrew...we haven't decided yet but if so then his hebrew name will be the hebrew version of his english name. (is this even making sense?)

for example - if his name was Jacob, his hebrew name would be Yaakov.

For my DD we did her baby naming a few months after she was born - but I really don't think there is a standard.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

Thank you everyone! This info is very helpful!

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

we are using the exact hebrew name of my grandmother that was the last to pass away in the family. We have also decided to use the first letter of her name for the english name we are giving our

As for the middle name, we don't have someone to name after, so we are just picking a name that goes with the first name we chose.

As for the baby naming, we originally wanted to do it within the month, but now I am not sure when we will do it because we have to contend with the Jewish holidays about a month after. But any time within the year is normal.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

Just wanted to say I found this thread helfpul as well, thanks!

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

I didn't know what I was having, but I knew I wanted to use my great-grandmother and great-grandfather's Hebrew names. We spoke to a Rabbi and got the male and female versions of each name.

DH and I couldn't agree on English names at all using the first letter of each of their names. We decided to just pick names we both agreed upon regardless of the letters.

I had a boy, but I don't think there's any set time to do the baby naming. I'd probably try to do it by 6 months or so.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

dh is jewish, i am catholic, and our children are being raised in both traditions.

i'm not sure if this was the "right" thing to do - but we named our son using the letter "J", after my father, who has passed.

my son's hebrew name is the direct translation of his english name (jonah --yonah)

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

traditionally you should have the baby naming ceremony the first day the torah is out after the baby is born. However, most don't do it that way.

We officially had DD named a week after she was born (the baby nor I were present), but everyone was very superstitious and didn't want to wait.

We had a Simcha Bat (celebration of our daughter), 2 months after she was born where we announced her hebrew name.

Her english name and hebrew name have no correlation.

I wanted her english name to be after my great, great uncle and great, great aunt. DH wanted her hebrew name to be after his grandmother who he was very close with and his grandmothers sister who was killed during the war.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

Thank you everyone-this is so helpful!

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

W're doing the first letter of the person we;'re naming after for the English name and their Hebrew name will be that same person's Hebrew name - if its a boy named after a woman, it'll be the male form, etc.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

For DS we used Cantor Phil Sherman. He can be found at emohel.com. I was very pleased with his work and professionalism. Since DS was an emergency c-section and born after sundown his bris was on the 9th day. The commandment to have the bris on the 8th day is apparently only for vaginal deliveries without complications.

We chose DSs Hebrew names before he was born. We confirmed the spelling with the Rabbi and the Mohel. He had his baby naming at the same time he had his bris. It was in my parent's house. We used the same name as the person he was named after for his first name in Hebrew. His middle name is after a woman (DHs grandma) and so we used the masculine form of the name. The Hebrew names don't "match" his English names but the first initials do match.

For DD I have been researching baby namings and have been told it can occur as late as a year after the birth of a girl. We will likely wait a month or so to have the baby naming for DD. For DD we have the opposite issue of DS - her first name is after a man so we will use a different Hebrew name for her. It will have the same first initial and it will be the translation of her English name. It is the same for her middle name as well.

Re: Question for the Jewish girls

DS's Hebrew and English name is after my grandmother. With this pregnancy, if it's a girl the English first name we love is not after anyone, but we will choose someone who has passed in my family for her to have their hebrew name. Prob the same will go with a boys name, we are not sure yet of any names. The rabbi who did my DS bris said you dont have to do both, it can be either the English name or the Hebrew name...so we will prob do the Hebrew name either way with this one to carry on the tradition.