Dear all,
I would like to discuss with you the
problem of parallel given names
as Hagit Armoni has listed them. This question is sometimes crucial for
our
genealogical research.
I have not any intention to criticize
Hagit's work. Not at all! She
did a tremendous job. But parallel Jewish-Christian-Hebrew names are
directly connected to the historical and social background Jews lived
or
still live in.
This parallelism is usually based on 3
principles:
1. Phonetics , 2. Meaning, 3. Fantasy and
Fashion
Some examples will make my point much
more clear. With your
permission, I'll first begin with my own first name: Mathilde.
My gg-grandmother was born in
Manisa,Turkey arround 1820. She was
called MAZALTOV, a very common Hebrew first name, meaning Good luck.
Her
grand-daughter (my grandmother) was called Mathilde, a French name
because
of the French influence brought to Turkey by the schools net of
Alliance
Israelite Universelle. The choice of Mathilde was based on close phonetics.
But a cousin of my grandmother, another
grand-daughter of Mazaltov,
was named after her (according to the tradition) FORTUNEE. Now the
parallel
was based on Meaning.
Here is Israel, grand-daughters of Mathilde
are usually called MEITAL
(Dew Water). Again phonetics. A grand-daughter of Fortunee is usually
called OSHRA/OSHRAt (Fortunated)- The meaning wins here. And why not
back
to the original Hebrew Mazal? Because of some ignorance of the past and
certainly because of "fashion". Mazal is
no more "in".
As fantasy has no limits, I personally know some girls, originally
named
MAZAL, who became SUZANNE after WW2. Or why RIVKA became HENRIETTE and
LEA:
LUISA in Greece and Turkey?
I gave feminine names because they are not limited
by Jewish law as do
masculine names. In that category, there are in fact very welknown
parallels like Abraham =Albert, Moshe=Morris/Maurice,
Mordekhay=Marc/Marco/ Max, Yehushua=Salvator etc..
Some are based on phonetics, some on meaning. But how an Italian Jewish
physician, named Giorgio, became here in Israel: Yehuda? And
Yehuda is
ususally translated by Leon. Again fantasy! The same occurs with Baruch
(=blessed)often becoming Bernard (from German= brave/strog bear)
instead of
the Benedict?benoit etc...(blessed in Latin or French).
Sorry for being so long, but I wanted to show how this aspect of
Jewish
onomastics has no real based rules.
Shabbat Shalom,
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