Names that are used for both boys and girls

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  • #1443522
    slominer
    Participant

    Simcha is a name given to either a boy or a girl. How many other such Jewish names are there?

    #1443758
    Geordie613
    Participant

    Zissel
    Yona

    #1443743
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    Shai

    #1443775
    Rif
    Participant

    Eli (short for Elisheva)
    I know a guy whose name is Michoel (like the malach) but he is called Michal like the woman’s name.
    Gabriel/Gabrielle
    Joel/Joelle

    #1443769
    Joseph
    Participant

    Can you name a boy after a bubbe or name a girl after a zeida?

    #1443779
    David111
    Participant

    Perhaps wait until you know if the babies gonna be a boy or girl and then decide on the name. No rush! 😀

    #1443867
    yehudayona
    Participant

    I’m named after my grandmother.

    #1443875
    WinnieThePooh
    Participant

    Interestingly, Simcha is used by Ashkenazim for boys and Sefardim for girls.
    Are you counting modern Israeli names as “Jewish names”? If so, there are many- the trend among secular Israelis is to use these “neutral” names, often taken from nature- like Tal.
    Joseph, I suspect that names like Tzviya (or Tzivya) and Yosefa originally came about in that manner.

    #1443876
    jakob
    Participant

    “Can you name a boy after a bubbe or name a girl after a zeida?”

    sure just change it from male grandpa chaim to female lashon granddaughter of Chaya & yes she is considered named after him

    #1443878
    american_yerushalmi
    Participant

    Joseph: regarding naming a boy after a bubbe, I heard of such a case a few years ago, about which Rav Chaim Kanievsky was consulted. He said not to do so, adding “ein me’arvin Simcha be’Simcha.”

    #1443869
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Gordie: …….naming a boy “Zissel” i(aka “sweeties) is borderline child abuse…perhaps consider “schlissel” which lends itself to more masculine connotations

    #1443884
    Shopping613 🌠
    Participant

    Yalli, I’ve heard as a nickname for Ayala and Yackov. The latter is less common but I’ve heard of it a few times.

    #1443885
    MalachOfCholent
    Participant

    My mother is named after her grandfather, but its a girls name that has the same meaning as her grandfather’s name. my grandmother asked R’ Moshe Feinstein and he told her how to do it.

    #1443886
    MalachOfCholent
    Participant

    I know a guy named Michel, i used to get so confused when someone would call out his name as to whether they are calling him or a girl….

    #1443922
    hml
    Participant

    Slominer, I would have liked to have named one of my daughters for my aunt Simcha, with whom I was very close. But it’s also my husband’s name, so that put paid to that. As for naming a boy after a Bubbe, in my family we don’t amend the name (Yehuda for Yehudis).

    Lucky are the parents who don’t have anyone to name for!

    #1443935
    Joseph
    Participant

    “Lucky are the parents who don’t have anyone to name for!”

    There are always elter-elter zeidas and bubbes.

    #1443916
    MalachOfCholent
    Participant

    Gadolhadorah: Zissel is a very common name for boys.

    #1443943
    Geordie613
    Participant

    Gadolhadorah,
    Rav’ Simcha Zissel Ziv, the ‘Alter fun Kelm’ was one of the gedolei hamussar. Rav Simcha Zissel Broide was the Chevroner Rosh Yeshiva. It is a very widely used boys name in the litvishe, yeshivishe world.
    Having said that, my father-in-law’s grandmother was called Sara Zissel, so we have many girl Zissel’s in the family.
    Rav Yosef Zvi Dunner, Rav of the Adass in London, had 5 boys and no one to name after his mother, Shulamis. He named he next child Shloime after his mother. The next child, was (and still is) a girl and now choshuve Rebbetzin, called Shulamis.

    #1443999
    Rif
    Participant

    Zissel is the nickname for Zusha/Zisha. Girls are usually called Zissy.

    A woman was called Elchanit after her grandfather Elchanan. At age 45, she went to see Rebbetzin Kanievsky who told her that her husband is opposed to certain names (Shira is one of them). She also said that her husband is opposed to giving boys names to girls and vice versa. The woman’s husband went to consult with Rav Kanievsky who told him to change his wife’s name. Today she is called Chana.

    #1444045
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    ZeesKite!!!

    #1444051
    american_yerushalmi
    Participant

    Regarding made up Israeli names: Rav Chaim Kanievssky’s opinion on this is pretty well known. He considers names like Opher, Almog, Raz. Maya, etc., not to be names at all. And people so named he considers “nameless.” He has told several ba’alei teshuva who have asked him about their names, to “give themselves a Jewish name.”

    #1444055
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Hendel.

    #1444099
    lesschumras
    Participant

    Modern names are no less Jewish than made up yiddish names

    #1444178
    kuchlefel
    Participant

    the chassam sofer had a daughter named simcha.

    #1444229
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Just because some Rav was named Zissel, it doesn’t make it any more appropriate “name” than some modern Hebrew names that R’ Kanievsky thought weren’t sufficiently “Jewish”. What is “Jewish” about adopting some Yiddish name derived from Old German etc. If we want to be machmir on naming children with only “Jewish” names than one should only use a name that appears in the Torah or the Neviim.

    #1444324
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Are there any Jewish names that are just two letters?

    Do you know what I mean?

    I’ve known individuals whose parents either named them with only two letters, or purposely gave them a first name and middle name so that they can just refer to their child by the acronym of their names.

    For example, real names or nicknames:

    DJ
    JD
    BJ
    RJ

    Interesting how they all have *J*s

    ….fyi, I don’t mean like acronyms for Rabbonim, such as Rambam, etc.

    #1444363
    Joseph
    Participant

    Rav Chaim isn’t the only one who holds that a boy shouldn’t be named after a woman and that a girl shouldn’t be named after a man.

    #1444371
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    So no Daniella, Mikaela, or Davida?

    #1444399
    MalachOfCholent
    Participant

    DV is also a name, without a “J”

    #1444426
    WinnieThePooh
    Participant

    Real names that can written as 2 letters:
    ST
    ZC (see above discussion)
    ID
    AB

    #1444676
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    Gad – גד
    Dan or Don – דן

    #1444708
    Joseph
    Participant

    You believe anyone can take any random Hebrew word and use it for a baby’s name?

    #1447539
    yehudayona
    Participant

    I forget where I saw it, but someone pointed out that while the Israelites in Mitzrayim supposedly didn’t change their names, we never see that they’re named after the Avos or Yaakov’s children. They mostly had names we don’t use. Have you ever met a Shlumiel (as opposed to a shlemiel?) And of course, Moshe was named by Pharaoh’s daughter, so it’s presumably an Egyptian name even though the passuk explains it with a Hebrew word.

    #1447557
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    KatanHadorah: “If we want to be machmir on naming children with only “Jewish” names than one should only use a name that appears in the Torah or the Neviim.”
    Actually, I believe that is the shita of Rav Chaim Shlita, a real Gadol Hador. Though I believe most Rabonim, Rebbes don’t seem to agree with him.

    #1447563
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Stop trying to create Halacha where none exists…..naming children goes by the minhagim of the family…there is NO strict limits as all the above postings have noted that many well known rabbonim and askanim have names derived from other languages or are variations of goiyeshe names or modern ivrit. Unless we restrict names to those of men and women mentioned in torah and neveeim,, there is no significance to a “Zissel” than to Gal or Raffi

    #1447574
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Uncle Benny…we agree….I might even consider Binyamin for my new pet parakeet

    #1448876
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    I don’t believe in giving animals the same kinds of names you would name a child. Not because of human names being sacred, just because you get to give animals names that would embarrass a child.

    #1448938
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    RebYidd: Katanhaborer is not being serious, as usual she erroneously thinks my name is Binyamin. So instead of sitting on her rocking chair and knitting afghans for her einiklach she fantasizes about naming her imaginary parakeet in my supposed honor!

    #1449009
    Joseph
    Participant

    UB: It’s a he.

    Insider info?

    #1449090
    Joseph
    Participant

    “Insider info?”

    An apikorus can be a he or she. But someone with such a grubbe outlandish spit in your Jewish face attitude is surely a he.

    #1449086
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    Could have fooled me! So what’s with the lashon nekaiva of dor”ah” ? Stam ameratzus?

    #1449271
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Binyamin….please don’t be so funny….I almost fell out of my rocking chair. You also misspelled “ameratzus”. On a more serious note, if you profile the names of many chazal over the centuries, you will discover that there are names that have as much nexus to torah as Gali, Ayit, Suki or any of the other dozen or so most popular names today in EY. If you are more comfortable with 12 variations on the avos and imahos, each ending in “LE” , that go for it. Mi kamocha yirsroel (or is that mi kamacha Yisroeleh?)

    #1449254
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Uncle Ben, anyone can buy a parakeet, so if Gadolhadorah claims to have one or plan to have one, I don’t doubt it.

    #1449317
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    I spelled ameratzus phonetically as it is colloquially pronounced.
    In any case my name is not and never has been Binyamin!
    Come on it’s cold out there get busy knitting those afghans, your einiklach are cold!

    #1449320
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    more focused on the SPF rating on their sunblock than my knitting afghans…BTW, are yidden allowed to use an afghan if it is shatnes?

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