[Noi]

It's hard for me to work this out...

I am Jewish, and my religion is important to me. I am pro-Israel, and that is important to me. Because of this, I want to name my children after strong characters from Tanakh or other Hebrew names. So some of the names I like are:

Girls:
Miriam (this is automatically going to be my daughter's name should I be blessed with a daughter)
Aphra (means 'deer' or 'gazelle' in Hebrew, also the name of famous English playwright Aphra Behn)
Yonit (means 'dove' in Hebrew
Yael (drove stake through Sisera's head)
Deborah (called Barak to battle)
Yocheved (Moses' mother)

Boys:
Omri (king of Israel, after divided kingdom)
Tzvi (means 'deer')
Dov (means 'bear')
Elan (means 'tree')
Rishon (means 'the first')
Shai (means 'gift')
Tavi (means 'good')

On the other hand, I don't want my children to sound like they're Hasidic, because I'm not...I want to reflect my heritage, but not have people hear my children's names and think that they should all be wearing black hats and have side curls.

The other ethnicity problem I face is wanting to reflect dear friends in naming my children. I have many Thai friends, though I am not Thai ('Noi' is Thai; it's my Thai nickname). I just can't imagine burdening a child with a Hebrew first name and a Thai middle name...

How do you go about reconciling a desire to reflect your culture and dear friends in your childrens' names with the fear that it will just be unbearable and the child will hate you for it?

And what do you think of my Hebrew name choices?


Take care, best of luck to you all,

Noi (means 'little' in Thai)

[sweetnoodle]

My children have REMINDED me what I did to them with their names, but they sure don't hate me for it. Name meanings are extremely important to me too. If it is important to you, it will be important to your child and meaningful when you explain why their name is such and such. Besides that, almost everyone with an ethnic name that is too hard to pronounce gets some kind of nickname from either family, friends or teachers, so it is no big deal. Please name them what you want. They will appreciate the time and thought you put into it.

I'm not sure I would use Tzvi because of pronunciation difficulty.

I wouldn't use Yael because of pronunciation difficulty also.

All the other names are great!

Sincerely,

[Keshet]

I think Yocheved might be hard to pronounce in an English speaking environment - even though I like the name.

I say if you like to use Thai mns - go for it!

I by myself like to combine names of different origines!

[qs mom]

Your child is your child. Name him or her as you wish. My name is Kelley. I have spend 39 years saying k - e - l - l - E - y. And my niece Sara has been saying s - a -r - a No H for years to.

I don't think it much matters, kids will always have to something that they won't like about their name.

I'm of Irish heritage and my son is Bulgarian. I love the Irish surnames as first name - Quinn, Griffin, Bailey, Murphy. I chose Quinn. I got some heat from family members, a family friend has that last name and he's a furneral director. My it means 5th born, my son is the 5th child to his birth family. I thought it just fit.

So, my Bulgarian born American son has an Irish surname as his first name, a Bulgarian name as his middle name (his birth name) and an Irish surname.

I'm sure he'll hate something about it when he gets older. But hopefully he'll grow to love it when he understands why his name is what it is, as I'm sure your child will.

[gkasche]

Names are VERY important. We have adopted three times from India. When we were waiting for our first daughter...we just could not bring ourselves to give her an American name. It seemed odd to us to have a beautiful Indian girl named ASHLEY for example. We wanted her name to reflect her "roots". But we also wanted to be able to give her a name we chose...not merely go with her birth name. So we researched through the lists of Indian names. Our families and friends thought it was odd. They kept saying "why do you want to name her with an Indian name when she will be American?" She will be raised American yes...but she will be of East Indian heritage. So we finally named her Sejona which means "auspicious happiness" and kept her middle name of Kalashree given to her at birth. EVERYONE thought her name was too long and complicated. All they had to do was just get used to saying it. It is very pretty and fits her perfectly. The Indian sound of her name reflects her heritage and we are so glad we did not give her an American name. IT makes her unique. We repeated the process for daughter number two and three. We ended up with Anjali Nanditha and Maya Indira. I am very proud of their Indian heritage and their Indian names. My point is...you name your child what you want. The history behind the name will delight them some day. I can tell my girls that we carefully chose the names for them according to their meanings...not for their sound or how popular they were. The names given to them by their birth mothers...I would never dream of eliminating it. Even though our family and friends thought their names too "odd" and didn't like them at first...everyone has come to pronounce them easily and think they are pretty now. Good luck...all the names you have listed are very nice. I think if you want a Tai middle name...so be it. You will have a great story to tell your child as to how their name was derived. Karen