DESCRIPTION:  THE GIVEN NAMES DATA BASES

DESCRIPTION OF COMPUTER DATA BASES

3.6.  SAMPLE GNDB SEARCH RESULTS

During the High Middle Ages (1000-1500), the use of German, Christian, and European secular names became so widespread that the rabbis decreed in the twelfth century that every Jewish boy must be given a purely Hebrew name at circumcision; this decree holds today.  Thus, two names were given, the Shem HaKodesh (the Hebrew name) and a kinui.  The non-Hebrew names previously chosen and the new ones chosen after the decree became part of the growing Yiddish lexicon via Yiddishization.  It was these names and their descendant names that enriched Jewish given names over the centuries and resulted in the Hilchot Gitin books to bring order to the new system.

The GNDBs show the richness of the Jewish given names chosen in Europe, particularly Yiddish names in Eastern Europe.  Many Legal Names were popular and led to multiple threads of Yiddish names;  this resulted perhaps from the warmth, sweetness, ease of use, complementarity to Hebrew, and subtle support of family unity of the Yiddish language.  Other Legal Names were not as popular and led to less use and fewer kinuim.  Many European secular names were absorbed into Yiddish and lovingly Yiddishized with its special flavor.  Many Yiddish names were kinuim for a number of different classic Hebrew names. Here are a few samples.

SARA:
  Gender:            F
  Legal/Hebrew:      Sara
  Origin:            Genesis 17:15
  Yiddish:           Sara/Sare/Shera/Shora/Shore/Shura/Sora/Sore/Sura
  Yiddish Nicknames: Eska/Eske/Eshka/Eshke/Iska/Iske/Seril/Serka/Serl/
                     Shirka/Shirke/Shirla/Shosa/Shosha/Sirka/Sirke/Sirkl/
                     Sirl/Sorele/Sorkl/Sorl/Soska/Sosya/Soya/Yeshka/Yeshke
  Origin:            Eska/Eske/Eshka/Eshke/Iska/Iske/Yeshka/Yeshke from
                     Sarai's name Yiska
  Secular:           Sonya

  US:                Celia/Jessie(from Yeshka)/Sadie/Sally/Sarah/Selma/
                     Shirley/Sonia/Sydell/Sylvia
  US Nickname:       Syd
  UK:                Celia/Sarah
  South Africa:      Sadie/Sara/Sonia/Susan

SARA (Second thread):
  Gender:            F
  Legal/Hebrew:      Sara
  Origin:            Genesis 17:15
  Yiddish:           Sara/Sare/Shera/Shora/Shore/Shura/Sora/Sore/Sura
  Yiddish Nicknames: Seril/Serka/Serl/Shirka/Shirke/Shirla/Shosa/Shosha/
                     Sirka/Sirke/Sirkl/Sirl/Sorele/Sorkl/Sorl/Soska/Sosya/
                     Soya/Tshira/Tsirele/Tsiril/Tsirka/Tsirke/Tsirl/
                     Tsirle/Tsirlya/Tsurl
  Origin:            < Yiddish "adornment, jewel"
  Secular:           Sonya
  US:                Celia/Sarah/Selma/Sophie
  South Africa:      Cecilia/Celia/Cilah

EZRA DEMITKARI OZER:
  Gender:            M
  Legal/Hebrew:      Ezra demitkari Ozer
  Origin:            Ezra 7:1
  Yiddish:           Eyzer/Ezdra/Ezre//Auzer/Azur/Eyzer/Oyzer/Ozer
  Yiddish Nickname:  Ovzer
  Origin:            Ozer < Hebrew "Helper"
  US:                Ezra//Ozer

YEHUDA LEYB:
  Gender:            M
  Legal/Hebrew:      Yehuda haMechune Leyb/Leyba
  Origin:            Genesis 29:35
  Yiddish:           Ihuda/Yehida/Yehuda//Leb/Leyb
  Yiddish Nicknames: Yidele/Yidl/Yodka/Yuda/Yude/Yudka/Yudl/Yudya/Yutka/
                     Yutke//Lebus/Lev/Levik/Levke/Levko/Levon/Leyba/Leybl/
                     Leybela/Leybele/Leybish/Leybka/Leybke/Leybush/Liba/
                     Libe/Libele/Liva
  Origin:            Leb (Yiddish/German "lion")
  Secular:           Leo/Lyuba

  US:                Isidore/Judah/Julius/Yidel//Leo/Leon/Leonard/Louis
  US Nickname:       Sol
  UK:                Julius//Lewis/Louis
  South Africa:      Alfred/Israel/Judah/Julius/Levi/Louis//Leo/Leopold/
                     Lewis
  SA Nicknames:      Udie

4.  SUMMARY AND AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

This document has described the conceptualization and realization of a set of given names data bases for fifteen European countries, including linked names adopted by emigrants to ten foreign countries.  A number of properties of these data bases have been presented, giving a flavor of the rich, varied heritage which many had in Europe.  The main benefit to the Jewish genealogical community is a large increase in the pool of given names that an ancestor might have used in alternative settings, and which will appear in different archival documents.  When this capability is embedded in other databases, the effectiveness of one's research is multiplied many times.

A very difficult problem for this project is to find the nineteenth century vernacular names adopted in foreign countries by Jewish emigrants from Europe.  Please help solve this problem by submitting from your own family tree the Hebrew, Yiddish, European secular, and foreign-country names using for each set of names, a format similar to this one:

     Aharon, Aron, Arele, Orelis(Lithuania); Aaron(US)

A GROYSEN, SHEYNEM DANK!

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.  Wigoder, Geoffrey, "Encyclopaedia Judaica," Jerusalem, New York (1972).
2.  Wigoder, Geoffrey, "Encyclopaedia Judaica," CD-ROM Edition, Jerusalem, New York (1997).

HILCHOT GITIN:

1.  ben Uri Shraga Phoebus, Samuel, "Bet Shmuel:  Shmot Anashim V'Nashim (Men's and Women's names)," with "Even HaEzer Hilchot Gitin" Text, in Hebrew, pp 31-36.
2.  Epstein, Rabbi Yechiel Michel ben Rabbi Aharon Yitzchak HaLevi, "Aruch HaShulchan:  Hilchot Gitin (Divorce Laws)," in Hebrew, pp 100-120, Lithuania (~1905).
3.  ben Phoebus, Samuel, and Ephraim Zalman Margoliot, "Tuv Gittin," Lemberg (1859).
4.  Mintz, Eliezer, "Get Mesudar," Philip Feldman, New York (1962); Originally published by Neta Kranberg Pub., Bilguria, Poland (1902).