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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.

Introduction
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
1 Comment
4. Naming After Parents, or After an Event
5. Giving a Boy a Feminine Name, and Vice Versa
4 Comments
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
7 Comments
11. Giving One Person Two Names
3 Comments
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
2 Comments
16. Naming a Child After Someone Who Died After the Child Was Born
4 Comments
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
3 Comments
28. Changing a Name
8 Comments
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
3 Comments
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
4 Comments

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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.