Tag Archives: hebrew names

Top Ten Israeli Given Names from 1948 to 2021

February 15, 2023Nameshebrew names, insta, israel, namesPhilip

I recently found a dataset at the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics that shows the number of people born each year with each given name, from 1948 to 2021. I thought it might be interesting to see how names change in popularity over time, but it’s a massive amount of data, so I came up with a simpler goal. I selected the ten most popular names from 1948, and the ten most popular names from 2021, and then plotted all of them on a graph over time.

For Jewish boys, the ten most popular names in 1948 were Moshe, Avraham/Abraham, Yoseph/Joseph, Yaakov/Jacob, Yitzchak/Isaac, David, Chaim, Shlomo/Solomon, Shmuel/Samuel, and Yisrael/Israel. In 2021, they were David, Ariel, Lavi, Yoseph/Joseph, Ari, Raphael, Noam, Uri/Ori, Moshe, and Yehuda/Judah. Ari doesn’t show up in the list until 1953 (and still misses some years until 1959). Lavi doesn’t show up until 1959 (and misses years until 1972). All of the other names show up in 1948, but only three names (Moshe, Yoseph/Joseph, and David) show up in the top ten in both 1948 and 2021.

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101 Most Popular Jewish Girls Names in Israel in 2020

January 24, 2022Nameshebrew names, insta, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics released the baby name data for 2020 last month. As I’ve done for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017-2018, and 2019, I’m posting the top 101 Jewish girls names. These are the most popular names given to Jewish girls born in Israel during 2020. Below you can see the number of girls that were named each name, and the ranking for 2020, as well as 2019 and 2018 for comparison. For numbers and rankings from earlier years, see the annual posts linked to above. For the parallel boy’s list, see 101 Most Popular Jewish Boys Names in Israel in 2020.

Six girls names entered the top 101 list in 2020 – Reef (entered at 78), Emanuelle (103 to 82), Niv (108 to 94), Eli (112 to 95), and Shoham (109 to 96). The girls names that exited the list were Feiga (101 to 106), Hili (100 to 107), Gili (97 to 111), Carmel (87 to 117), Darya (99 to 119), and Annael (90 to 127).

All the columns in the table below can be used to sort the table, so you can sort the table to see the order of ranking for each year, or by the spelling of the name in Hebrew or English. You can also search the table using the search field on the top right of the table.

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101 Most Popular Jewish Boys Names in Israel in 2020

January 24, 2022Nameshebrew names, insta, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics released the baby name data for 2020 last month. As I’ve done for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017-2018, and 2019, I’m posting the top 101 Jewish boys names. These are the most popular names given to Jewish boys born in Israel during 2020. Below you can see the number of boys that were named each name, and the ranking for 2020, as well as 2019 and 2018 for comparison. For numbers and rankings from earlier years, see the annual posts linked to above. For the parallel girl’s list, see 101 Most Popular Jewish Girls Names in Israel in 2020.

Three boys names entered the top 101 names in 2020 – Gefen (126 to 93), Yehoshua (107 to 95), and Emanuel (103 to 101). The boys names that exited the list were Matan (93 to 105), Yaheli (87 to 108), and Asaf (86 to 125).

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Given names from British Mandate Palestine

November 2, 2021NamesBritish Mandate Palestine, hebrew names, insta, jewish names, namesPhilip

I recently posted about the name changes published by the British Mandate of Palestine government during the years of British rule (1919-1948). One of the most interesting aspects of those name changes is that the English should reflect the official names people used when they moved to pre-state Israel (presumably verified by the government authorities), and that they were published simultaneously in English and Hebrew.

I’ve taken a selection of the many lists, and matched the unique name pairs (Hebrew and English) and put together a table with over a thousand name pairs. You can view the table below. The table starts sorted alphabetically in English, but you can sort it by Hebrew if you prefer. You can also search, and see which names match your search. If you don’t know Hebrew, you can search for one name in English, then copy the Hebrew name and paste it into the search field to see all the other English names that match the Hebrew. In general Hebrew names are more likely to have multiple English names associated with them. This is partly because there are few variant spellings in Hebrew (although there are Yiddish variants that pop up), but it is also due to how I assembled the list.

Here’s an example of searching for the Hebrew name יעקב (Jacob):

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A look at British Mandate Palestine name changes

October 22, 2021NamesBritish Mandate Palestine, hebrew names, insta, israel, Israel State Archives, name changes, namesPhilip

I’ve been doing some research into name changes, and wanted to share some of the process of name changes that occurred in British Mandate Palestine (pre-state Israel, from 1919 to 1948).

If you’re interested in searching these name changes, note that these are all searchable online at the Israel Genealogy Research Association web site. Search results include the image of the English version of the name change publication, which I’ll explain below.

Name changes during the mandate were published regularly in the official government paper, called, in English, the Palestine Gazette. The paper was also published in Hebrew (as העתון הרשמי) and Arabic. While looking through files in the Israel State Archives, I came across a folder that contained many of the name change lists from 1941-1946. In the folder, you can see the original lists that were submitted for publication. This usually included the original request letter, a list of the name changes in English, and another list in Hebrew and Arabic as appropriate. Sometimes corrections were also made. Let’s go through an example.

Here is the letter submitting a list of name changes on May 11, 1942: