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I was walking around my office today and noticed that all the Indians, Muslims and other nationalities go by their native names whereas some Yidden are ashamed and choose an English name to go by?
i use my english name in school because all of my legal documents are under my legal-english name. i use my english name for simplicities sake. if a piece of paper has my hebrew name, i can blame it on a typo. but to have to change all my legal papers to my hebrew name? forget it. i’m not ashamed of my hebrew name, CH”V. some of my non-jewish classmates noticed my email comes up as my hebrew name. so in emails they call me my hebrew name but f2f they use my english name.
I was wondering the same thing about the way the way the muslims keep their traditional dress and are proud of it, wheras the Yiden have modernised.
Please we don’t need to be mekatreg our bretheran. That is Sotan’s job!
Because we’re rachmanim. Plus, it’s just annoying to hear your name mangled over and over again.
musser zoger, it’s not CH”V a kitrug but rather a shevach and limud zechus on those who recognize that Hashem has not yet redeemed us from Galus. And there are prominent Rabbanim et al who, themselves, have secular names.
The difference, lihavdil, between us and other ethnicities is that only WE are subject to the halcha yadua sheEisav Sonei Es Yaakov. It has nothing to do with shame, CH”V, especially in a multi-cultural society as OP pointed out.
So if using a name not common to secular culture will make any/some (normal and decent) non-Jews uncomfortable, then it makes perfect sense to give children American legal names to be used in the workplace, et al. (No one is suggesting it is typically dangerous, CH”V, to use Jewish names as legal names, but that doesn’t lessen the concerns with doing so. YH”R, Hashem Yishmireinu, viyigaleinu BB”A)
i think that the comparison between the names and the modernized clothing is not fair. though both mens and women’s clothing has changed since way back when, we have for the most part (short skirts and shaitels, esp long ones, notwithstanding) retained our mesorah of tznius. this was always the accepted derech — is there any mekor for saying otherwise? even the chassidish levush dates back only to pre-war europe, when they made a stand and refused to adopt the short jackets of the time.
jewish names are kadosh. i agree with the OP – both my sons have somewhat uncommon (not strange though) torah names that are hard to pronounce – if at some point they are forced to adopt some kind of nickname to survive college/business/etc that’s their choice, but i wouldn’t put the name on them.
OP:
what it someone who intends to name his kid an English name names him that name halachically? is it then a Jewish name? eg, “vikarah shmo b’yisrael jake ben moshe boruch…” does that constitute a jewish name? after all, where did the names in tanach come from?
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