JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: Naming Pattern among Ashkenazic Jews #general
Judith Singer
I have never heard of a tradition that the mother could choose the
name of the first child and the father the second, or vice versa. Among Eastern European Jews, most important was the custom that a child not be named after a living relative - though two cousins might both be named after the same grandfather, so duplication existed. Generally, the first son was named after the paternal grandfather (if he had died). In some families, the sons tended to be named after the deceased relatives of the father and the girls after the deceased relatives of the mother, in the order of grandparents first, particularly revered ancestors next, then uncles and aunts of the parents. In other families, all the children were named after the deceased relatives of the father, leading to very clear naming patterns detectable in successive generations. My experience is mainly with Litvaks and the customs among Ukrainian or Romanian Jews or among Chasidim might have been somewhat different. JewishGen has some information about this at https://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/GivenNames/slide7.html and a few subsequent slides. Both you and JewishGen refer to naming traditions among "Ashkenazic Jews", but the Ashkenazim include German Jews, who by the 19th century did not adhere strongly to naming traditions, and a variety of Eastern and Central European Jews. Customs differed somewhat >from region to region. Judith Singer
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