P4M, why do you think I am missing the boat (I wouldn’t get on a boat anyhow)? I believe strongly in the concept that Am Yisroel’s big zechus, among others, in Galus Mitzrayim was that they did not change their names. We are in Galus America here, and it would seem to me to be way harder for a Jew named Moishie or Devorah to assimilate than it is for a Mark or a Diane. In any case, I have a strong love for Loshon Kodesh, and feel that it is the right thing for my children to be named for the Hebrew names of those long-gone relatives even when said relatives were referred to by their secluar names), and in a case where the name was Yiddish, we translated it into the exact Hebrew (Faigeh to Tzipporah, for example).
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