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Jewish Practice Lifecycle Events The Hebrew Name Laws and Customs of Names and Naming

What’s in a Name?

A book on the laws & customs regarding the naming of children and related topics

An authoritative scholarly guide to names and naming, drawing from a broad range of rabbinic responsa.

By Zushe Wilhelm

1. Who Has the Right to Name a Child

2. When a Boy Is to Be Named

3. How and When a Girl Is to Be Named

4. Naming After Parents, or After an Event

5. Giving a Boy a Feminine Name, and Vice Versa

6. Names Common to Both Males and Females

7. Names Containing the Name of G‑d

8. Naming Children After Places

9. Naming a Son After One’s Rebbe

10. Naming After a Living Person

11. Giving One Person Two Names

12. Naming After a Former Husband

13. Naming After a Former Wife

14. Mistakes Made While Giving the Name

15. Naming After Someone Who Died Young

16. Naming a Child After Someone Who Died After the Child Was Born

17. Naming After One Who Has Not Yet Been Buried

18. Naming a Child According to the Calendar

19. Naming a Child According to the Circumstances of Birth

20. Someone Whose Son or Daughter Has Died

21. Giving Two Children the Same Name

22. Special Objections Regarding Names

23. Non-Jewish Names

24. Names Predating Abraham

25. “May the Name of Reshaim Decay”

26. Naming an Adopted Child

27. Naming a Child Who Died

28. Changing a Name

29. Mentioning the Patient’s Name, and That of His Mother, When Praying for a Sick Person

30. Calling One’s Father by His Name

31. Calling One’s Rabbi by His Name

32. Whether a Husband and Wife Should Address Each Other by Name

33. If a Second Wife Has the Same Name As the First Wife

34. If a Second Husband Has the Same Name As the First Husband

35. A Daughter-in-Law and Mother-in-Law with the Same Name

36. A Son-in-Law and Father-in-Law with the Same Name

37. Mechutanim with the Same Name

38. Symbolic Reference to the Author’s Name in the Title of His Book

39. Using Titles

40. Calling Up a Person to the Torah by His Name

41. Addressing People Named Shalom and the Like, in the Bathhouse

42. Miscellaneous

44. Reciting a Verse Beginning and Ending With the Same Letters As One’s Name

Browse Book

What's in a Name? »

By Zushe Wilhelm

Among the Jewish life cycle events, naming a child is uniquely important, for throughout his life, his Jewish name defines his identity at every waking and sleeping moment. It is by his Jewish name that a person is remembered and memorialized after a hundred and twenty years.

In this Book

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