Jewish Baby Names: Hebrew Names, Meanings and Naming Customs

Updated October 2026 · Modern Baby Names

A Jewish baby name usually does more than one job. It often carries a Hebrew meaning, it may honour a grandparent or a great-grandparent, it will be spoken aloud when the child is called to the Torah, and it may sit alongside an everyday English name on a birth certificate. This guide walks through where Hebrew names come from, how modern Israeli names differ from the classic biblical ones, the Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs for honouring relatives, the naming ceremonies for boys and girls, the warm world of Yiddish names, and how families pair a Hebrew name with an English one.

How Hebrew names are built

Many Hebrew names are short sentences. Once you recognise a few building blocks, hundreds of names start to make sense on sight.

• El (God) appears at the start or end of a name: Michael ("Who is like God?"), Gavriel ("God is my strength"), Netanel ("God has given"), Eliezer ("My God is help"), Uriel ("God is my light") and Azriel ("God is my help").
• Yah / Yeho / Yo (a short form of the divine name) gives Yehoshua ("God is salvation"), Yonatan ("The Lord has given"), Yoav, Zechariah and Neriah ("lamp of God").
• Avi (my father, often understood as God the father) begins Avigail, Avital, Avner, Avishai and Avichai ("my father lives").
• Bat (daughter) and Ben (son) give Batya and Bat-El ("daughter of God"), Batsheva, Binyamin ("son of the right hand") and Bentzion ("son of Zion").
• Or / Ur (light) runs through a whole family: Ori and Uri ("my light"), Liora, Meir ("one who gives light"), Meira, Orly and Lior ("I have light").

Other names are simply words: Baruch means "blessed", Tikva "hope", Simcha "joy", Shalom "peace", Emuna "faith" and Bracha "blessing". Several names arrive in English through Greek and Latin, which is why Yochanan reached English as John, Yaakov became Jacob, Yosef became Joseph and Chana became Hannah and Anna.

Names were also changed in the Torah itself to mark a new stage of life. Avram becomes Avraham in Genesis 17:5, explained there as "father of a multitude of nations", and in the same chapter Sarai becomes Sarah. Jacob receives the name Israel after wrestling through the night in Genesis 32. Queen Esther is introduced in Esther 2:7 as also bearing the Hebrew name Hadassah, "myrtle". These stories are part of why many Jewish families think of a name as something that can shape and describe a person.

Ashkenazi and Israeli pronunciation

The same Hebrew name can sound and be spelled differently depending on community. Traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation, used by many Orthodox families of Central and Eastern European descent, turns some final "t" sounds into "s" and shifts certain vowels. So Yehudit becomes Yehudis, David is often Dovid, and Rachel may be Rochel. Modern Israeli Hebrew follows a pronunciation closer to the Sephardi tradition, which is why Israelis say Yehudit, David and Rachel. Spelling in English is also loose: Tzipora, Tzippora, Tzipporah and Zipporah are all the same name, as are Yaakov and Yaacov, or Devora, Devorah and Deborah. When you see a guttural "ch" (as in Chaim or Chava), it is the throaty sound in Scottish "loch", not the "ch" of "church".

Biblical and classic Hebrew names

The Hebrew Bible remains the largest single source of Jewish names. Patriarchs and matriarchs, prophets, judges and kings all still appear on birth announcements. Some, like Moshe, Aharon and Shmuel, are used across every Jewish community; others, like Boaz, Calev or Gideon, have become fashionable again in recent years both in Israel and abroad. A few biblical figures have complicated stories, such as Absalom or Nimrod, and families differ on whether that matters to them; it is worth reading the narrative behind a name before choosing it.

Here is a selection of classic boys' names, with their meanings:

And classic girls' names, including the four matriarchs, Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Leah:

Note that a few Hebrew names have meanings that are genuinely debated. Miriam is often given as "wished-for child" or "bitter", but its origin is uncertain; Rebecca is usually explained from a root meaning "to bind"; Ruth is often read as "friend" or "companion", though scholars disagree. Where a meaning is uncertain, it is honest to say so on a baby announcement rather than pick the prettiest gloss.

Modern Israeli names

When Hebrew was revived as an everyday spoken language in the late 19th and 20th centuries, parents in the Land of Israel began choosing names drawn from the landscape, from nature and from ordinary Hebrew vocabulary, alongside or instead of the Yiddish and European names their own parents carried. That trend has produced a distinctive Israeli naming style: short, often two syllables, frequently unisex, and full of trees, flowers, light and water.

• Trees and plants: Alon (oak), Oren (pine), Erez (cedar), Tomer (palm tree), Ilan and Ilana (tree), Gefen (vine), Shaked (almond), Neta (plant, sapling) and Nitzan (bud).
• Flowers: Nurit (buttercup), Sigalit (violet), Vered (rose), Nirit and Shoshana, which means "lily" in classical Hebrew but is used for "rose" in modern Hebrew.
• Water, sky and seasons: Tal (dew), Maayan (spring of water), Yuval (stream), Raviv (gentle rain), Shachar (dawn), Aviv (spring) and Kinneret, the Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee.
• Feelings and virtues: Noam (pleasantness), Roni (my joy), Shira (song), Shalev (calm), Shai (gift), Hadar (splendour) and Raz (secret).

Some of these are much older than they look. Noa, for example, is one of the daughters of Zelophehad in the book of Numbers, and Itamar is a son of Aaron, but both feel thoroughly modern in Israel today. Many Israeli names, such as Lior, Tal, Eden, Yarden and Shai, are given to both boys and girls.

Naming after a relative: Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs

Honouring a family member through a child's name is one of the most widely kept Jewish naming customs, but the two largest traditions approach it in nearly opposite ways.

Ashkenazi custom: naming after someone who has died

Among Ashkenazi Jews (those whose families come from Central and Eastern Europe), the general custom is to name a baby after a relative who has died, and to avoid naming a child after a living relative. The name is seen as a way of keeping the memory of the person alive and expressing hope that the child will share their good qualities. Families often match only the Hebrew name, or only the first letter or sound: a grandfather named Mordechai might be remembered by a grandson whose Hebrew name is Mordechai and whose English name simply starts with M. Some families also try to avoid giving a child the same name as a living parent, and some avoid naming after a relative who died very young, though practice varies between families and rabbis.

Sephardi custom: naming after living grandparents

Among Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews (with roots in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East and beyond), it is common and considered a great honour to name children after grandparents who are still alive. A frequently described pattern is that the first son is named after the paternal grandfather, the first daughter after the paternal grandmother, and the next children after the maternal grandparents, though families adapt this freely. In some Sephardi families it is even customary for a son to be named after his own living father. A grandparent hearing a grandchild called by their name is a celebrated moment rather than a taboo.

When an Ashkenazi and a Sephardi family marry, it is worth talking this through early: what one side sees as a loving tribute, the other may find uncomfortable. Many couples find a compromise, for example using a deceased relative's name from one side and a living grandparent's name from the other as a middle Hebrew name.

Naming ceremonies: brit milah, simchat bat and more

Boys. A Jewish boy is traditionally given his Hebrew name at his brit milah (often called a bris), the covenant of circumcision held on the eighth day of life, as commanded in Genesis 17. The baby's name is announced during the blessings after the circumcision, and many families keep the name secret until that moment. The brit can be postponed for medical reasons, and in that case the naming waits as well.

Girls. Traditionally a girl is named in the synagogue during a Torah reading, when her father (and in many communities today, either parent) is called up for an aliyah and a blessing that includes her new name is recited. Sephardi communities have a long-standing ceremony called zeved habat ("gift of the daughter"). In recent decades many families, especially in liberal communities but increasingly across the spectrum, also hold a simchat bat ("celebration of a daughter"), a home or synagogue gathering with blessings, readings and the announcement of the name. There is no single fixed script for a simchat bat, so families often write their own.

The full Hebrew name. A Hebrew name is formally given as the child's name plus "ben" (son of) or "bat" (daughter of) and the parent's name, for example Yosef ben Avraham or Leah bat Shmuel. Increasingly both parents are named. The full Hebrew name is used when a person is called to the Torah, on a ketubah (marriage contract) and on a gravestone. In prayers for the sick, the custom is to use the person's name with their mother's name. There is also an old custom, when someone is seriously ill, of adding a name such as Chaim ("life") in hope of recovery.

Yiddish names

For centuries, Ashkenazi Jews used Yiddish names in daily life alongside or instead of Hebrew ones. Many survive today as affectionate family names, as names in Hasidic communities, or as vintage choices that are starting to sound charming again. Common patterns include:

• Diminutives ending in -el or -l: Hershel ("little deer"), Leibel ("little lion"), Raizel ("little rose") and Freidel ("little joy").
• Hebrew-Yiddish pairs: a Hebrew animal name is often paired with its Yiddish translation as a double name. Tzvi (deer) goes with Hirsh or Hershel; Aryeh (lion) goes with Leib or Leibel; Dov (bear) goes with Ber; Zev (wolf) goes with Velvel. In the same spirit Tzipora (bird) is often paired with Fayge (bird).
• Yiddish forms of Hebrew names: Mendel is a form of Menachem, and Itzik is a pet form of Yitzhak.
• Descriptive names: Shayna ("beautiful"), Gittel ("good"), Zissa ("sweet"), Liba ("beloved") and Zelig or Selig ("blessed").

Because many families named children after relatives, Yiddish names often travelled forward into English names. A great-grandmother called Shayna might be remembered by an English name beginning with S, and a great-grandfather called Hershel by an English name beginning with H.

A Hebrew name alongside an English name

Outside Israel, most Jewish children have two names: a civil name used at school and work, and a Hebrew (or Yiddish) name used in religious life. Families approach the pairing in a few ways:

1. The same name in both languages. Many names work in both worlds with little or no change: Noah, Adam, Eli, Levi, Asher, Ezra, Micah, Naomi, Hannah, Leah and Talia.
2. The English form of the Hebrew name. Binyamin becomes Benjamin, Shlomo becomes Solomon, Yonatan becomes Jonathan, Rivka becomes Rebecca, Yehudit becomes Judith and Chava becomes Eve.
3. Matching the first letter or sound. This is especially common in Ashkenazi families naming after a deceased relative: the Hebrew name honours the person exactly, while the English name simply shares an initial.
4. Matching the meaning. Parents sometimes choose an English name with a similar meaning, or a Hebrew name that translates the English one.

Short forms are part of the culture too. Avi is a common nickname for Avraham or Aviel, Kobi for Yaakov, Tzippy for Tzipora, Esti for Esther and Rivki for Rivka. For more ideas, browse our Jewish baby names and Hebrew baby names collections, or the A–Z lists of boy names and girl names. Many of the same biblical names also appear among Christian baby names, usually in their Greek and Latin-derived forms.

Frequently asked questions

When is a Jewish baby named?

A boy traditionally receives his Hebrew name at his brit milah on the eighth day after birth. A girl is traditionally named in the synagogue at a Torah reading soon after birth, and many families also hold a simchat bat or, in Sephardi communities, a zeved habat. The civil name on the birth certificate is registered separately according to local law.

Can you name a Jewish baby after a living relative?

It depends on your tradition. Ashkenazi custom generally avoids naming after a living relative and instead honours someone who has died. Sephardi and Mizrahi custom commonly names children after living grandparents and sees it as an honour. Individual families vary, so it is worth asking your own relatives and rabbi.

Does my child need a Hebrew name if they have an English one?

Most Jewish families give a Hebrew name in addition to the civil name, because it is used for Torah honours, a ketubah and other ritual moments. The Hebrew name can be the same as the English name, a Hebrew form of it, or something entirely different.

What does "ben" or "bat" mean in a Hebrew name?

"Ben" means "son of" and "bat" means "daughter of". A full Hebrew name is the child's name followed by ben or bat and a parent's name, such as David ben Yitzhak. Many families now include both parents' names.

What are popular modern Hebrew names in Israel?

Israeli parents often choose short nature and virtue names such as Noam, Ori, Alon, Eitan, Noa, Tamar, Shira, Maayan and Yael, as well as unisex names like Lior, Tal and Eden. Classic biblical names remain popular too.

What is the difference between a Hebrew name and a Yiddish name?

Hebrew names come from the Hebrew language and Bible, like Tzvi or Menachem. Yiddish names come from the everyday language of Ashkenazi Jews and are often German-derived or diminutive forms, like Hershel or Mendel. Traditionally the two were often paired, so a boy might be called Tzvi Hirsh, with the same meaning, "deer", in both languages.