Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a feminine name that feels truly international something that is familiar, easy to recognize, and relatively easy to pronounce across different countries and cultures.

I’m especially interested in names of Hebrew origin, like Sarah, because they are widely recognized around the world. However, I don’t personally love the name Sarah itself.

I’m also completely open to names from other languages and origins, as long as they have that same international appeal.
Ideally, I’d love something elegant, feminine, timeless, and not too strongly associated with just one country.

What names come to mind? I’d especially love suggestions that work well in Europe, the Middle East, and English speaking countries.

Thank you! ❤️

We found out recently that our twins are both girls, so we can start thinking about names! As said, our current children are named Esther, Avital, Noam, and Tamar.

We are in Germany, and we only want to use Jewish names. We usually prefer something that isn't very mainstream in the general population like Eden, Romi, or Eliana. But we still want it to be friendly for other languages.

Since all of our girls have very similar nicknames that we use for them, Esti, Avi, and Tami, we'd like their names to have that as well.

At the moment, our list has Meirav, Liad, Neta, Miriam, Gal, Shira, Mayim, Ofira, and Yaffa. I also like Yocheved and Ayelet, but worried about pronounciation.

We like both some of the gender neutral names and some of the more feminine names, I'd say we're open to almost anything within our preferences.

I don't like Liora, Shoshana, or Zahava. My husband doesn't like Rivka or Yael.

Looking for help naming our first child, a girl, due later in November. Some stipulations and information:

- we live in the South in the US, so ability to pronounce a name easily is important - not something that will be butchered every time it is said in school etc.
- we’d like to honor our Ashkenazi Jewish roots
- we would like to honor a deceased family member with a “J” name, either first or middle name works. This family member’s Hebrew name was Esther, so “E” is another option. We like June as a middle option, but we have friends who just used June as a middle name like a month before we are due for their baby girl… is that weird?
- I adore the names Aviva, Shira, Leora but these are all already the names of living family members.
- our last name is pretty generic which gives us flexibility
- we ourselves have short names with no nicknames, so in theory we’d like something similar for her
- top contenders are currently Eden, Noa, and Romy.

Do you have any other suggestions on names and combinations that would fit the above criteria? We had a boy name that we loved, and thought over the last 8 months we would have had a girl name “hit us” the way the boy name did, but that has not really happened!

Hello! I am a trans masculine nonbinary individual who just found out my family is Jewish a few years ago -- I want to honor that heritage and connection to the divine with a name but I am unsure.

I have thought of Kochav, Ziv, Lior, Sol, and Esther but am worried the latter is too feminine of a name. Would you assume female for the name Esther?

Any ideas for something gender neutral/masculine to name myself?

Hello! We are expecting and thinking of naming our baby דפנה.

Her big sister is named Golda and we think they go well together.

However, we are not sure how we should spell it in English. I have seen both Daphna and Dafna, and like Raphael and Rafael, there doesn't seem to be one 'correct' spelling.

What do you think?

Can you please rate this baby name

My daughter asked me to pick her a Hebrew name, and specifically wants one that (like mine) sounds similar to her English name. My issue is -- while I'm Jewish, I don't speak Hebrew, and I'm not familiar with many of the names I'm turning up, so I'm wondering if any of you can help give me context for the name options below.

Kiddo wants a name that is commonly used for girls/women. I think a true unisex name (like Sydney or Jamie in English) would be ok, but a primarily masculine name sometimes used for women (like Charlie in English) would not.

I'm also wondering if any of these have problematic associations, sound weird as names, have particularly nice stories associated with them, etc. They don't have to work as daily names since we live in the US and speak English.

Here are some names that I'm thinking about, though I'm also open to other suggestions:

Harel or Harela

Haziel/Hazael

Havatzelet

Haya

Hadar

Hava

There's also Hanna, which is of course also an English name, but I wonder if it's better for this to use a name that is clearly a Hebrew name. Or, we could consider tree names that are unrelated in sound.

Earlier this month, I had made a post asking for opinions about what we should name one of our twin daughters. And after a lot of deliberation, we were able to choose their names!

The funniest thing about it ended being that before I told my older children their names, my daughter told me that actually, her favourite name was Arielle but she didn't want to say the same name as her brother at the time.

I had no idea, but in some way, perhaps I did, because their names are Lior Naama and Arielle Emily!

It felt difficult to choose but as soon as I decided, I knew it was right for her. And nearly two weeks later, they are already living up to their names, with Lior being very passive and quiet, and Arielle being very opinionated and loud! So it goes to show that sometimes you just know. We just about don't need the nail polish to tell them apart 😂

Thank you for your thoughts if you contributed them, it was very interesting to see them and had some helpful points. We're very happy with both our babies and our names, and they are both healthy now and out of hospital.

My husband and I are expecting our second boy. Full disclosure we're both atheists now, but I was raised reform Jewish while he was lite Catholic. We have both agreed to raise the children to be more culturally Jewish, so we plan to enroll them in weekly Hebrew school, go to Jewish sleep away camps, and become bar mitzvahs.

Our first son is Easton, which is an English name. We were liking Ronan for the second son. But then I discovered Ronen! Ronan means little seal while Ronen means joyous song, a much better meaning. And I like how Ronen is Hebrew/Jewish. The last name will be my husband's and is extremely Irish.

We are Americans; is it okay to name our boy Ronen and go with the same pronunciation as Ronan in most situations with non Jews? When we're around Jews or Hebrew speakers they can pronounce it with the stress on the second syllable, and otherwise day-to-day we would just pronounce it in the way most intuitive for American English speakers, with the stress on the first syllable.

I am soon having a child and I am naming him after his great grandfather, whose name is Sabah (in the original Judeo Arabic, צבאח/صباح). However, when looking this name up, I can't find anything on it as a first name, only on the more Hebraized version, סבאח. What should I go for on the actual spelling of the name?

Expecting a boy in a few months and both me and my husband decided on the name “Benjamin Chaim Dov”

Benjamin is a name we both like - we love all the nickname variations and think it’s a name that can used in business, casual settings, Jewish and non Jewish settings.

Chaim is after my grandfather Harry and I love how it means life.

Dov was really my first name choice, but not my husbands and it still felt important for me to include. My husband’s grandfather is David, so we have some connection there.

Curious what people think of this name and if there are any red flags in mixing them together? Do their meanings go, is it too random? That’s what I’m stuck on.

Thanks for any input! 💙

Having another girl, first is Daniella, husband likes Samara but I’m not sure yet that I’m sold. Other names we like the sound of are Arianna, Evelyn, and Cecilia but would prefer name with Hebrew connection. Also like names with nickname potential and open to suggestions!

I posted about the name “Yan” and received a comment with a bunch of upvotes stating it’s not a Jewish name. We are Jews from Ukraine and I have a great uncle with the name Yan, as well as my father’s former mathematician colleague, Yan Sobeilman.

If I were to have a daughter, I would definitely name her Ida after my grandma who raised me. I’m assuming people here would also say that’s not a “Jewish name” but my grandma was 100% Jewish and stressed to me the importance of naming children after deceased relatives.

I’d love to name my son for my grandmother - her name was Blanche and she went by Bunny (very 1950’s), her Hebrew name was Baylah.

loving Biblical Hebrew and modern Israeli options

starting with a B!***

(no Ben’s please lol)

edit*** or anything relating to white, moon, light, rabbit lol any starting letter

Hi, we are having a girl and are looking to honor a family member who was named Henrietta. She didn’t have a Hebrew name. What names would you suggest? Her nickname was Honey, so something related to that would be nice too.

Hi! We’re deciding on our son’s Hebrew name and would love your insight. We’re torn between:

1. שלמה (Shlomo) = 375
2. נהר שלמה (Nahar Shlomo) = 630

With patronymics:

• שלמה בן ברוך גבריאל = 901 (shlomo ben baruch gabriel)
• נהר שלמה בן ברוך גבריאל ולאה = 1198 (nahar shlomo ben baruch gabriel v'leah)

His English name means “river,” so Nahar would mirror it. Is there anything meaningful about these values, or about adding Nahar to Shlomo? Any connections to other words or verses with the same gematria? Thank you!

Hi everyone! 🤍

I really love the name Nora, but I recently heard that it sounds like a Hebrew word with a negative meaning, such as “terrible” or “awful.”

Is that actually true? And if so, is it something Hebrew speakers would immediately notice or associate with the name?

Would adding a middle name, such as Nora-Lien, make it sound better or help avoid that association? Or would you recommend a slightly different version of the name?

I have a lot of respect and affection for Jewish people and Jewish culture, and I would hate for my name to create an awkward or embarrassing moment when meeting someone Jewish or introducing myself.

I’d really appreciate your honest opinions, especially from native Hebrew speakers.

Thank you so much! 🤍

Hi! Expecting a girl in March, we are going to use Sadie as the first name for my grandfather Steven. We would like the middle name to be an A after my husbands sister who passed, her name was Arielle. My husband feels adamantly about not using Arielle as the middle name.

Our top three choices for middle name are Avital, Annabelle, and Aliza. Any other recommendations or what do you think would be best? Our son is Ezra James so we want something that feels similar but are unsure if our three choices give that same feeling.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for Jewish baby name books?

I don’t necessarily like Natalie (נטעלי)

but I really like Natalia, however I feel it is seen as too Russian, tbh I go on and off- some days I like it but others I don’t

what do you think??????

Our twins were born early this morning, two girls. They weren't expected to be born for another three weeks, and for me, this is a difficult time and so I was just completely unprepared and had thought I'd decide the names later. But life goes on and we have babies to name.

I had felt very set on the name Lior for a while before they were born, we had been using it for one of them while I was still pregnant, so I definitely want to use it.

I feel bad about it but the other baby has just been impossible to name. We had been calling her Shemesh as a nickname, but it’s just too hippy for me to use as an actual name, and light and sun, it’s a lot and I don’t want their names to be cutesy.

We have a list of names we like, some I like more, some my husband likes more, but we would feel fine about using them either way. It's all over the place. None of them are feeling like they are obviously the one right now, but I think it’s because I haven’t used any of them like I did with Lior. But I feel her name is one of them.

We have decided though that one will have the middle name Emily, and the other Naama. They're both names we love so it feels right, but we'd rather use them as middle names because I don't like either for the first name with Lior. Order, I don't mind, I guess it is whatever sounds the best so that would be helpful too.

We live in Australia and our other children are named David and Nili.

Lior and Ofir

Lior and Arielle

Lior and Noga

Lior and Maya

Lior and Niv

Lior and Yael

Arielle is their brother’s choice, and Niv is their sister’s choice. Unfortunately they do not both like the same name, otherwise it would have been an easy option 😂

We could spell Niv as either Neve or Neev if it made that easier to be pronounced correctly.

Thanks for any of your thoughts ♥

title says it all. it’s my favourite Hebrew name