Boys shortlist - Dovid to Yussel and those inbetween

Tomer definatly and Zusa is lovely

I love Zusa - beautiful.

For boys I like Tomer, Ezra and Evron. I think it is lovely that the op are choosing names that reflect their heritage. He should be proud of his cultural and religious heritage.

And, these names make a refreshing change from all the little Alfie, Jack and Charlies these days imo.

Dovid and Evron are off

Between

Yussel Ze'ev
Tomer Ze'ev
Matan Ze'ev
and because DH is a stick in the mud Ezra Ze'ev

We may just wait and see what he looks like to pick final one.

Thanks

I had a lovely Israeli boyfriend called Tomer back in the day. Gorgeous name. I like them all actually but Tomer and Yussel would be my favourites.

Nothing wrong with Ezra. Just because a nutcase anti-Semite had that name doesn't detract from the fact that the 'original' Ezra was a highly respected priest and teacher.

While I agree that you need to think carefully about what your child's name implies culturally, I think objecting to the parent imposing an identity upon their child is utter nonsense. That's what we do as parents. It's the way a family develops. If, in later years, the child wants their identity to move away from their upbringing, that is their choice. But until they are able to make that choice, of course we - the parents - define them.

Ezra

Matan or Tomer or Ezra

...but I know you weren't asking for more suggestions! Tomer is really nice, and Yussel is very very sweet.

Do you like Dov? Which I think means 'bear'? I've always loved it, although not used it, and it's strongly Hebrew/Jewish, but wouldn't get mixed up with David. I think Dovid is a 'think again' name in the UK just because correcting the spelling and pronunciation every day could get really boring...

I get what you are saying about very jewishy/hebrew/even yiddish names.
technically yiddish names should be written as hebrew versions anyway but i'm not technical about that one. Also if i said that Yiddish was the language i spoke at home (DH doesn't at all) would that make a difference?

I objected too Ezra DH likes the original one so that is why it is there

And I would have said the same if someone wanted to call their kid Jayden or the like - that it is a name that creates preconceptions.

Look, I'm sorry. Baby names brings out the worst in me and I was in a grumpy, unreasonable mood yesterday. But what I was saying was that there are Jewish names and then there are Jewish names that sound ultra-religious - if that makes sense. It's like calling your daughter Charity or Temperence would sound much more religious than Christine and would suggest you had expectations of them). Anyhoo, I'm sorry again, and I should have left it.

And yes, Ezra because of the Ezra Pound association.

(If I was looking for a name of this type, I would go for Akiva, because I think it sounds awesome, like a superhero. I ruled it out because I did think it came with a lot of baggage. Again, my ishoo).

Love Tomer & Ezra!

I like Ezra and Evron and Tomer best.
I do like Dovid as well but would fear people may see letter o and think that it is someones hand writting making an a look like an o

Dovid (auto correct)

Love Ezra and David

How about AZRIEL as well - it's a lot of Zeds with your chosen middle name but it's lovely IMO

I'm confused by the notion that you shouldn't give a Jewish child a Jewish name as well. Who better to be given a Jewish name in fact? Should I deliberately not give my child an Irish name?

I like Dovid and Evron personally :)

You should live where I live. It took me months to get my son's name accepted as it wasn't on the official name list (It was a fairly common name, my father's).
I like Dovid best, Ezra next...

I love them all, with Evron and Matan standing out.

Your baby belongs in your own family and culture just as much as in the wider community imo. I agree with Psammead that a baby's name needs to sound familiar to the parents and family -- for this reason I chose existing family names for my DCs.

I always felt a bit sad for a Phillippino family I knew in the US whose DDs were Ashleigh, Tiffany and Brittany.

Hmm well I am an immigrant and I shall use names from my culture for my children, provided they are basically recognisable as names in my new country, which I think the OP's names are. Anyone who would try and persuade me to use names which sound foreign to me would be fighting a losing battle.

Ezra is a fabulous name.

Never heard Zusa before. Beautiful.

Why on earth shouldn't a Jewish person give their child a Hebrew name? How very odd to even suggest otherwise! Reminds me of when I worked in recruitment in the early 90s and the boss used to tell Iraqis to use anglicised versions of their name in order to get job interviews. Outrageous!

Tryingtoleave - why would there be a bad reaction to Ezra in the jewish community? Is it because of association with Ezra Pound?

I think it is possible to carry off a very cultural name and still live whatever life you want - it is more the parents' attitudes that will influence this rather than the name they give their child (though of course these attitudes may be reflected in the name)I think a lit of people are proud of their heritage and want a name to reflect that but do not necessarily want to pigeonhole their child in a particular lifestyle.

2 reasons I can think of.

1 - It is an imposition of parent's identity on to child. And I tend to think that when I hear any particularly unusual name. But in this case, all the people I know who are calling their dc's 'chaya' or 'shmuli' have a particular life path and identity mapped out for them.

2 - the world is, unfortunately, discriminatory. I have friends who have changed their Chinese names to anglicized names when they left uni because they felt that their Chinese name put them at a disadvantage in the workforce.

So what? Ds has a very biblical name and pronounced correctly is muslim but with a slight variant (that most people use) is jewish. That is exactly what we wanted.
Its obviously exactly what op wants, no? Why should we not carry our identity openly?

I tried to walk away, but I couldn't.

It's none of my business but, personally, I think it is a bit unfair to give a child a name that will make everyone put them in a pigeon-hole as soon as they hear it.

If you call your ds David, no one will have preconceptions. If you call him Dovid or Yussel, everyone hearing that name will either think they are Israeli or very religious. Maybe that is what you want people to think - maybe you want to bind your child to that identity, but it still seems limiting.