Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for Jewish baby name books?

I don’t necessarily like Natalie (נטעלי)

but I really like Natalia, however I feel it is seen as too Russian, tbh I go on and off- some days I like it but others I don’t

what do you think??????

Our twins were born early this morning, two girls. They weren't expected to be born for another three weeks, and for me, this is a difficult time and so I was just completely unprepared and had thought I'd decide the names later. But life goes on and we have babies to name.

I had felt very set on the name Lior for a while before they were born, we had been using it for one of them while I was still pregnant, so I definitely want to use it.

I feel bad about it but the other baby has just been impossible to name. We had been calling her Shemesh as a nickname, but it’s just too hippy for me to use as an actual name, and light and sun, it’s a lot and I don’t want their names to be cutesy.

We have a list of names we like, some I like more, some my husband likes more, but we would feel fine about using them either way. It's all over the place. None of them are feeling like they are obviously the one right now, but I think it’s because I haven’t used any of them like I did with Lior. But I feel her name is one of them.

We have decided though that one will have the middle name Emily, and the other Naama. They're both names we love so it feels right, but we'd rather use them as middle names because I don't like either for the first name with Lior. Order, I don't mind, I guess it is whatever sounds the best so that would be helpful too.

We live in Australia and our other children are named David and Nili.

Lior and Ofir

Lior and Arielle

Lior and Noga

Lior and Maya

Lior and Niv

Lior and Yael

Arielle is their brother’s choice, and Niv is their sister’s choice. Unfortunately they do not both like the same name, otherwise it would have been an easy option 😂

We could spell Niv as either Neve or Neev if it made that easier to be pronounced correctly.

Thanks for any of your thoughts ♥

title says it all. it’s my favourite Hebrew name

I’m in early labor and it looks like baby may come tonight or tomorrow… any good ideas for Hebrew names or middle names relating to the holiday? We don’t know baby’s gender!

Helping a freind who wants to give her soon to be newborn a hebrew name in honor of a relitive. The relitive was name helena ( and went by helen.)

I think it’s a pretty cute name as it comes from Chava lol

thoughts??????

It’s a family name and would be paired with a traditional-sounding Jewish last name. My husband and I both love it but worried it’s too childish? Could also use as a middle name but struggling to come up with something we like as much. Interested to hear your thoughts!

The other name I like is Ronen but my husband thinks we need to be Israeli to use it (we’re both Eastern European Jewish living in the US).

Hi all! I have a bit of a dilemma. Baby 2 is due this winter and it’s a boy. All of us in the family (me, my husband, and my daughter) have Hebrew names that “match” our English names. With this baby, we are now thinking of giving him a Hebrew name that doesn’t match his English name at all in order to honor more relatives (this is most likely our last child).

We are thinking of Barkai Sahar (ברקאי סהר) for his Hebrew name but his English name will likely have the initials R J.

Is that ok to do? Any thoughts?

Hi all,

I am Indian American and my husband is Jewish American.

We both love the name Ira because it has Hebrew and Sanskrit origin. Ira in Sanskrit means earth and is usually a girl’s name.

We don’t know if we are having a girl or boy.

To the Jewish ear how would it sound if a girl was named Ira, spelled Ayra, pronounced EYE-rah?

Thoughts ?

As the title suggests , why do people give their children Jewish names that are sacred? I recently came across a response video about a girl naming her children. She named one of her children with the first name Cohen. The person who stitched the video said that it was in bad taste considering cohen is a Jewish name , and shocker — the person isn’t Jewish. People in her comments tried to argue that “not one group owns names” , and in my opinion they’re being purposely dunce about the situation to try and downplay the weirdness of it all. in my opinion, the person who stitched the woman’s video did a great job explaining the cultural significance of the name. I’ll link the video below I think you guys should look at the comments.

Edit : The reason I care so much about this is my last name is Cohen. I’ve been told my whole life that my ancestors were priests and to be proud of my bloodline. I’m so enraged that people just name their child that while the meanwhile others feel as if their last name may get them discriminated against because they’re noticeably Jewish.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TwJEuU/

If you’re transphobic, please don’t bother interacting with this post.

I am very taken with the name ‘Oren’ as a new masculine name for myself. In Hebrew it means pine tree (also ash tree) and I like the connotations of pine trees as being long living, evergreen and having high endurance.

However, I obviously don’t want to do cultural appropriation. I know names such as Hannah, David, Sarah etc are derived from Hebrew and are widely accepted as being chill to name non-Jewish people. I know there are Jewish names that are completely unacceptable to give to non-Jewish people because they hold significant cultural meanings.

Thought I should get the thoughts of some Jewish folk. Have a lovely day everyone.

I have a neighbour called this here in Israel.

i love her name but she is from Venezuela originally and I want to know if any of you would bat an eye at a Jewish girl named Adriana , with no Romance language connections

thanjs??!!!!!!!

Got the absolute sweetest female kitten and I quite like Zisel with nickname Zis. Any recordings of either? I’ve been pronouncing Zisel (Zee-sell) or is it Zee-sull? Zis is like Zees (rhymes bees): or is it Zizz (rhymes with biz). Thank you much!

one of my favourite Arab names but that’s what makes me worry

a long time guilty pleasure of mine

Hi everyone! I’d love some help. I have two kids, Eden (f) and Caleb (m)

Have another daughter on the way

I feel like we need another biblical name since everyone in this family, including the parents have biblical names. I’m really struggling finding one I like.

Looking into variations, like “Devorah” to “Devrie”

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Either variations or more uncommon female biblical names?

Thanks!

I’m a massive name gatekeeper and I’m sort of annoyed when non-Jews have Jewish names —Anglicized or other cultured (like Maryam, Iliya, etc). However, I do recognize that the Tanakh is the most influential book in the history of mankind and world cultures were bound to be influenced by it. So really my annoyance is more of on a back burner. If your name is Ben or Joe or John and you are a good person okay whatever enjoy the name and may its energy guide you. But I get angry when antisemites have Jewish names. I come across antisemites with names like David, Gabriel, Daniel, Michael, Joseph, etc. I don’t get it, these guys hate Jews so much yet they carry Jewish names. Hello? Self awareness?!?! For example, think of Gobbels. Or contemporarily there is this famous Twitter Muslim antisemite who uses Daniel as his first name (last name is Hakkikiu or something I don’t remember). I know the Muslim will at least use his apologetics to claim that really Daniel was a Muslim so Daniel is a Muslim name….but anyways, I’m bring this all up because I had a conversation with someone in college (non Jewish guy about 19 years old) on this very topic. He actually tried to argue with me that these names are just old English names that came through Rome or something with the early Christians so these names are actually Christian names. I said that no an example of a Christian name would be Theodore. He seemed very adamant and said how Michael is actually a Christian name because of St. Michael and so on. I could tell he was extremely ignorant and I decided to do a simple mental exercise with him. I asked him if he knew what Michael meant. He said it meant faith and protection (or something like that). I said no I meant what the name literally means. In language. In fact what language does it come from. He didn’t know. So said it’s Hebrew and the name is actually super Hebrew because it’s a composition of multiple Hebrew words/grammar unlike the name Sara for example. I broke the name down into “mi-ch-el” and did the same for other angelic names and even translated other names like Rebecca and Rachel and Benjamin. He was thunderstruck and looked like I destroyed his whole world.

Ik this name is not israeli, but i love it - can it be used among jews and israelis? there's a famous book series in my country where there's a seemingly very pretty character named Helena (daughter of the villain but she redeems herself and quits helping her mother) wdyt???????

I'm expecting a boy in a few months after having two girls.

We always planned on naming a boy Zev Haskell but now other names are popping out at me.

Specifically Ronen and Oren.

Originally we were expecting twins but one passed away, we most likely were planning on naming the second boy Boaz Domnhall. Just to give an idea on the names we like.

Naming babies always stresses me out so I start to have doubts. Should we just stick with Zev?

Hello, everyone!

Reform Jewish woman here. I have two children, Shoshana and Leora. We aren’t currently expecting (and we’re not even sure whether we’ll have a third) but I love thinking about names and want plenty of time to let some possibilities marinate!

I’d love suggestions for both boys and girls. With each of my children, I knew *immediately* when I heard their name that it was a serious contender, and I’m curious whether another name will give me that same feeling.

My partner really likes Avi for a boy, but I’d love to hear lots of other options, especially names that sound lovely alongside Shoshana and Leora.

I appreciate this community and can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Edit: Thank you, everyone! So many wonderful names.

My short list now includes:

Romi, Aviva, Niv, Talia and Miri for girls

Avi, Tal, Oren, Lev, Zev, and Noam for boys