Most Common Frum First Names?

Boy did I misread this thread!

Most common, any of the names of the Avos or Emahos, followed by Moshe, Dovid, Aharon, Yosef, (all the Ushpizin,I guess), Shmuel, the shevatim, etc.

Lets rephrase the question and make it more challenging;

Most common NON BIBLICAL names;

Lipa

Dov

Aryeh

The NYC department of Vital Statistics publishes the top one hundred (plus ties) baby names broken down by race/ethnicity. In terms of frum names this would cover neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Boro Park, etc. and will give a good idea of popular frum names.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/public/press09/pr076-09-babynames.pdf

Looking at the non-Hispanic white male list for 2008 and selecting for the obviously frum names we get:

Moshe, Chaim, Menachem, Yehuda, Shimon, Yosef, Mordechai, Yisroel, Shmuel, Shlomo, Yitzchok, Asher, Tzvi, Yaakov, Meir, Yakov, Shulem, Zev, Eliyahu, Mendel, Yechiel, Ariel, Eliezer, Yehoshua, Dovid, Avrohom, Naftali, Ari, Aryeh, Alimelech, Noam, Akiva, Pinchas, Dov, Efraim, Eitan, Hersh, Hershy, Shaya, Shia, Naftuli, Simcha, Hershel, Baruch, Cheskel. Shlome, Yisrael, Binyomin, Ilan, Mendy, Moishe, Zalmen, Binyamin, Boruch, Yoel, Aharon, Gavriel, Nachman, Benzion, Chesky, Lipa, Shimshon, Mordche, Shloma, Shraga.

I left out names like Eli, Levi, David, etc. which could come from any kind of family.

In 2008, the non-Hispanic white girls’ frum names are

Esther, Sarah, Rachel, Chaya, Leah, Miriam, Sara, Chana, Rivka, Faigy, Malka, Malky, Raizy, Devorah, Shaindy, Gitty, Naomi, Rivky, Baila, Chava, Shira, Dina, Hindy,Noa, Talia, Yitty, Nechama, Goldy, Rochel, Blimy, Bracha, Blima, Yocheved, Perel, Pessie, Shoshana, Yehudis, Yael, Ahuva, Chany, Esty, Sima, Tamar, Brucha, Mirel, Raizel, Zissy, Acital, Lea, Rifky, Shifra, Batsheva, Bruchy, Devora, Elizheva, Fraidy, Avigail, Faiga, Idy, Liba, Ruth, Zippora, Zipporah, Breindy, Etty, Frady, Hadassah, Menucha, Freida, Gittel, Michal, Miri, Rifka, Rivkah, Ruchy, Shaina, Chavy, Fraida, Tehila, Zahava.

For the girls I had to make more judgment calls, like whether a particular spelling was more likely to be Muslim than frum, and whether Suri was a form of Sarah or named after the celebrity baby.

This certainly gives a good idea of which names are popular in NYC frum families. Anyone who is interested can scan the list for themselves. One thing the list makes very clear: frum Jews make up a very substantial percentage of NYC’s non-Hispanic white population.

Itai, Eitan, Liora, Yaniv, Limor, Galit, Yaron, all the Israeli or sefardi sounding names come to mind.

Sefardic common names

Ezra

Mazal

jphone, you’ve already made that comment once. It was one of the first posts nominated for “post of the year”.

Most common frum first name: For men – Rabbi, for women – Rebetzin.

Squeak. I’m glad someone remembered.

Pashuta…if you were hit in the head as many times as he was, you’d also name all your kids George 🙂

“jphone – he named his grill George too! “

He had boys AND grills?????

The way I heard it, Tzvi means ‘deer,’ ‘stag’ (hence the double name Tzvi Hirsch) and is a variant of or reference to Naftali whose emblem was the deer. In the same way Binyomin lies behind the names Ze’ev and Wolf, since Binyomin’s sign was the wolf, and Ari/Aryeh/Ariel/Loeb are variants of Yehudah, the lion.

The most popular 1st name in my boys yeshiva is Friedman. 🙂

Rawtz ka’tzvi, gibbor k’ari. Naftali was the swift runner who was likened to a tzvi.

“For that one I’m afraid you get raked over the coals ;)! “

Coal Yisrael Chaverim – – they would never do that to me.