Thanks, Mod 42 for the info on Shlumiel. I never thought of it that way before.
“Here is the big question. Will G-d be angry at someone who is named Shira or names their child Shira?”
Here is a bigger question – will G-d be angry at someone for saying such a thing, and then at us for posting it? EVERY name since time began is made up from SOMETHING. We believe that Hashem gave the Avos and Emahos Ruach HaKodesh in naming their children, and in fact we see that the names given to the shevatim were all based in something that occurred to the Emahos at that moment. “Re-u-bein,” “Ben -Oni” (changed to Bin Yimini), Dina’s name was given to her because the “din” came down for her to be a girl, when she was supposed to originally be a boy.
If any Rov actually were to make the statement attributed to R’Chaim, then it would seem to me that it would have to apply equally across the board to EVERY single non-Torah name given, and most especially, as was mentioned by several of us posters, to any non-Hebrew name, because not one of them is a real Jewish name. Shprintze, for example, which is Yiddish, doesn’t even ORIGINATE from Yiddish. It comes from Esperanza which means hope in Spanish. I didn’t know about the Bunim (bonhomme), and that was interesting. But the point is, NO ONE should change their given names. Names are added when chalilah one is deathly ill, but that’s it. The only exception is when one is misgayeir, or if one was never given a Jewish name to begin with. Then a Rov should advise them on what is proper.