Hello:
The name  "Seiva"(Scharf ) is listed on Ancestry.com as the mother of a family friend whose letter I found while researching family letters. The letter in question was written from Botosani, but the writer's relatives and my grandparents both lived Stefanesti Romania and immigrated to Montreal before WW2.  I am wondering if anyone has seen the name "Seiva" before, whether is is Yiddish, Romanian or Hebrew and also what the English equivalent of the name might be?  BTW: the writer's father is listed as "Moise" and I have found a newspaper reference to a "Morris" (Scharf) who lived in Montreal during that time.

Aline Petzold St. Paul MN

I haven't seen "Seiva," but here's a person in my tree (Galicia, 1800s) named "Schewa" whose Hebrew name was Batsheva.

--Nevet Basker (Bellevue, WA)
Researching: Zolkiew, Brody, Uhnow, Rawa Ruska, and vicinity
Names (spellings vary): Basechis, Laubfeld, Klughaupt, Lieberman

Hi,
My maternal grandmother from Czernowitz was called 'Sheiva' or 'Sheive', a Yiddish diminutive of the biblical Hebrew name 'Batsheva'. 'Seiva' might be an alternative spelling.
Regards,

Zev Cohen

Just to add a note. 

The following Hebrew names would be nicknamed Sheva and Shevy (apparently Seiva and Sheiva too):
1) Sheva 
2) Bas-shehva/Batsheva
3) Elisheva

Yitschok Margareten 

Given names in all areas of Eastern Europe were the same or similar. I searched the JRI-Poland database for Seiva and similar spellings and the results were: 

Seiva 4
Siva 1
Seiwe 14    (in Polish the "w" is pronounced like our "v")
Siewa  93
Siwa 117

I think your Sieva is a real, but not common given name.

Mark Halpern
JRI-Poland

At 17:09 09/10/2020, nevet@... wrote:

I haven't seen "Seiva," but here's a person in
my tree (Galicia, 1800s) named "Schewa" whose Hebrew name was Batsheva.
--Nevet Basker (Bellevue, WA)Researching:
Zolkiew, Brody, Uhnow, Rawa Ruska, and
vicinityNames (spellings vary): Basechis, Laubfeld, Klughaupt, Lieberman
_._,_._,_

Or Elisheva ?

David Lewin
Londn

One of my ggrandmothers was one of 20 children born to a couple in a tiny town. On each of the 20 birth records, her name was different. She was Reis, Rachel, Regina, Rosa, every other R name you can imagine except Rebecca, and Teresa. My ggrandmother was mostly Rachel, but she married as Regina, who was also a sister.

You can't tell what name or names is the 'proper' one. Maybe the woman had a Hebrew name and maybe not.

Sally Bruckheimer
Princeton, NJ

Ziva (or Ziv) is a woman's name in Hebrew, meaning "Splendour, Radiance"

Ann Belinsky
Israel