Tag Archives: jewish names

101 Most Popular Jewish Girls Names in Israel in 2017 and 2018

July 31, 2019Nameshebrew names, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

[Update: The list for 2019 is now available.]

My annual posting of the top 101 Jewish boys and girls names in Israel are popular posts on this site. Usually the data for a given calendar year is posted over a year after that calendar year comes to an end. Possibly due to the ongoing upgrade of the Central Bureau of Statistic’s web site over the past year, I don’t think the 2017 names data was posted until this week when it was released together with the 2018 data. That’s late for the 2017 data but early for the 2018 data. Therefore I’m combining both sets of data for this post, and also include the 2016 ranking information for comparison. You can also see the posts for 2016 (which includes rankings for 2015 and 2014), 2015 and 2014. You can also see the parallel post 101 Most Popular Jewish Boys Names in Israel in 2017 and 2018.

Only three girls names entered the top 101 names in 2017 – Haleli (102 to 98), Michaela (122 to 92), and Lior (104 to 99). The names that left the list in 2017 were Aleen (80 to 109), Rotem (84 to 104), and Yuli (99 to 105).

In 2018 five names entered the top 101 names – Lenny (108 to 91), Liv (122 to 94), Bar (107 to 96), Aleen (109 to 97), and Anne (137 to 101). Note that Aleen reentered the list after exiting it in 2017. I’m still not sure if Aleen is supposed to be a form of Aileen or not. The names that left the list in 2018 were Odele (84 to 103), Daniella (91 to 105), Batsheva (96 to 106), Lior (99 to 109), and Orin (100 to 113). Note that Lior entered the list in 2017 and exited it in 2018.

Continue reading →

101 Most Popular Jewish Boys Names in Israel in 2017 and 2018

July 31, 2019Namesbaby names, hebrew names, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

[Update: The list for 2019 is now available.]

Seven boys names broke into the list in 2017 – Aryeh (484 to 72), Leo (113 to 97), Yedidya (107 to 99), Re’em (117 to 92), Dan (106 to 93), Ofek (109 to 94), and Elazar (102 to 100). The names that left the list in 2017 were Leroi (76 to 103), Yinon (93 to 106), Shai (98 to 109), Yaheli (86 to 105), Oz (97 to 108), Ron (83 to 115), and Osher (99 to 120).

In 2018, there were also seven names that broke into the list – Ray (136 to 83), Levy (119 to 93), Leroi (103 to 95), Yinon (106 to 93), Shai (109 to 98), Arbel (107 to 100), and Yarden/Jordan (117 to 101). Note that Leroi, Yinon and Shai were all on the list in 2016, left the list in 2017, then returned in 2018. The names that left the list in 2018 were Tom (90 to 103), Ofek (94 to 104), Aryeh (72 to 105), Uriah (82 to 108), Elazar (100 to 112), Asaf (76 to 118), and Dvir (98 to 119). Note that Ofek, Aryeh, and Elazar were not on the list in 2016, were added in 2017, and left the list again in 2018.

Continue reading →

101 Most Common Surnames in Israel (in 2016)

May 7, 2018Nameshebrew names, insta, israel, jewish names, names, surnamesPhilip

I’ve been posting the 101 most common Israeli given names for both boys and girls for the last few years, as the data has been released by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Recently the data for 2016 was released, and I posted the lists for girls and boys. While going through the data, however, I noticed something I had not noticed in previous years – a link to information on Israeli surnames.

The data consists of over 50,000 surnames, and the number of people with that name in Israel. The smallest number of people with a name is 9, so the least common surnames do not appear (including mine – I guess I need a few more kids to break through, or get my cousins to make aliyah). In theory this data is current as of 2016, although I suspect the top 101 names out of over 50,000 probably don’t change significantly from year to year.

Something significant worth noting is that the list is only in Hebrew, and like any other government data, has no nikudot (diacritical marks used as vowels in Hebrew), so many times names that would be considered different in English are spelled the same in Hebrew.

Sometimes those names have a common origin, such as פלד which could be Feld or Peled. Peled is actually a Hebraization of Feld, so that’s not such a big deal, although many times changes in spelling are useful in genealogy research in detecting different branches of the same family. Sometimes the same family uses different spellings, but many times different families used the same spelling for many years, and this merging of names can be frustrating when researching one’s family history. Consider the most common name כהן which in English could be spelled Cohen, Kohen, Cohain, Cohn, Kohn, Cahan, etc.

When I publish my lists of given names, I add nikudot to the names, since even those fluent in Hebrew might not be able to decipher the name if they’re not familiar with it. Reading without nikudot requires some familiarity with the words you’re reading. If the name is not familiar, it’s not possible in some cases to figure it out. Some given names also use the same spelling, such as אורי which can be Uri or Ori. The problem is significantly worse for surnames, however, where many more variations exist.

As officially names in Israel are written without nikudot, it creates a genealogical problem that documents with names don’t actually reflect what a person called themselves. If you are researching someone whose name is recorded as אורי פלד, is their name Ori Peled, Uri Feld, Ori Feld, or Uri Peled? That’s not a problem I can solve, but what I’ve done with the following list of the 101 most common Jewish Israeli surnames is added nikudot for one common pronunciation, added a few possible English spellings, and linked to all the surname articles at Beit Hatfutsot (in English this was formerly called the Diaspora Museum, but is now called the Museum of the Jewish People) that are for names that use the Hebrew spelling, as well as the English versions of those articles.
Continue reading 101 Most Common Surnames in Israel (in 2016) →

101 Most Popular Jewish Boys Names in Israel in 2016

April 22, 2018Namesbaby names, hebrew names, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

[Update: The lists for 2017-2018 and 2019 are now available.]

I’m happy to release my list of the 101 most popular Jewish boys names in Israel for 2016, based on recently released data for that year. This follows up my earlier releases of lists for 2014 and 2015. You can also see the lists for the 101 Most Popular Jewish Girls Names in Israel in 2016.

Five boys names broke into the list in 2016 – Ari (all the way from 106 to 56), Malachi (107 to 77), Roy/Roi (108 to 88), Gabriel (111 to 92) and Osher (104 to 99). The five that left the list were Yotam (99 to 103), Tomer (91 to 105), Dan (101 to 106), Yarin (90 to 108), and Ofek (80 to 109).

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.

2016 Rank	2015 Rank	2014 Rank	Name (Hebrew)	Name (English)	Number
1	1	1	נוֹעַם	Noam	1505
2	2	3	דָּוִד	David	1479
3	3	2	אורי	Uri/Ori	1385
4	4	7	אֲרִיאֵל	Ariel	1251
5	6	4	יוֹסֵף	Joseph	1237
6	5	5	אֵיתָן	Eitan (Ethan)	1175
7	9	8	דָּנִיֵּאל	Daniel	1165
8	7	6	אִיתַּי	Itai	1067
9	8	9	יְהוֹנָתָן	Yehonatan	1053
10	10	10	מֹשֶׁה	Moshe	975
11	14	14	יְהוּדָה	Yehuda (Judah)	956
12	13	11	אַבְרָהָם	Abraham	928
13	26	36	לָבִיא	Lavi	876
14	19	18	יִשְׂרָאֵל	Yisrael (Israel)	831
15	11	15	אִיתָמָר	Itamar	824
16	18	17	עוֹמֶר	Omer	780
17	15	12	יוֹנָתָן	Yonatan (Jonathan)	769
18	16	16	יָאִיר	Yair	743
19	21	20	יַעֲקֹב	Yaakov (Jacob)	743
20	25	24	אַלְיָה	Eliya	741
21	32	37	רְפָאֵל	Raphael	735
22	17	30	שְׁמוּאֵל	Shmuel (Samuel)	733
23	12	13	עִידּוֹ	Ido	724
24	22	25	מִיכָאֵל	Michael	706
25	23	21	יִצְחָק	Yitzchak (Isaac)	674
26	24	28	חַיִּים	Chaim	647
27	20	23	הַרְאֵל	Harel	642
28	31	35	שִׁמְעוֹן	Shimon (Simon)	594
29	29	22	עָמִית	Amit	583
30	27	19	אַלּוֹן	Elon	579
31	33	32	שְׁלֹמֹה	Shlomo (Solomon)	533
32	54	56	עוֹמֶרִי	Omri	514
33	30	26	עִילָּאִי	Ilay	512
34	28	27	גַּיְא	Guy	505
35	35	31	בֵּן	Ben	487
36	34	29	נהוראי	Nehorai	482
37	37	34	נְתַנְאֵל	Netanel	477
38	44	38	מֵאִיר	Meir	466
39	42	33	אָדָם	Adam	461
40	49	48	מָרְדְּכַי	Mordechai	457
41	43	45	נִיתַּאי	Nitai	455
42	40	44	אוֹר	Or	452
43	47	51	יִשַׁי	Yishai	440
44	53	57	יַנַּאי	Yanai	439
45	36	40	אַהֲרוֹן	Aharon (Aaron)	438
46	45	39	לִיאַם	Liam	429
47	41	46	בִּנְיָמִין	Benjamin	428
48	39	54	אֵלִיָּהוּ	Eliyahu	422
49	38	41	נָדָב	Nadav	403
50	50	49	מְנַחֵם	Menachem	394
51	48	59	הלל	Hillel/Hallel	377
52	51	52	רוֹעִי	Roi	374
53	57	58	נָתָן	Natan (Nathan)	373
54	52	42	יוּבַל	Yuval	367
55	65	128	אֵלרוֹאִי	Elroi	362
56	106	111	אֲרִי	Ari	353
57	46	43	יוֹאָב	Yoav	347
58	61	61	מַתָּן	Matan	312
59	67	120	בְּנָיָה	Bnaya	310
60	59	50	לִיאוֹר	Lior	310
61	100	124	אִימְרִי	Imri	307
62	55	53	מָאוֹר	Maor	303
63	58	68	אֲבִיאֵל	Aviel	293
64	56	62	אֶבְיָתָר	Eviatar	289
65	77	80	בְּאֵרִי	Beeri	289
66	78	74	נְבוֹ	Nevo	269
67	63	66	שַׁחַר	Shachar	267
68	62	55	אָבִיב	Aviv	263
69	92	91	רוֹם	Rom	262
70	60	47	עִידָּן	Idan	259
71	73	73	נוה	Neveh	257
72	64	64	אוֹפִיר	Ophir	248
73	70	63	אָסָף	Asaf	247
74	87	89	נַחְמָן	Nachman	246
75	69	60	דּוֹר	Dor	244
76	74	95	לִירוֹי	Leroi	234
77	107	121	מַלְאָכִי	Malachi	229
78	68	69	אוּרִיאֵל	Uriel	226
79	82	72	אֶלְחָנָן	Elchanan	222
80	66	65	אייל	Eyal	221
81	89	90	אֲמִיתַּי	Amitai	218
82	75	76	יַהַב	Yahav	218
83	93	71	רוֹן	Ron	218
84	95	83	צְבִי	Zvi	215
85	84	92	שָׁלוֹם	Shalom	210
86	71	67	יָהֵלִי	Yaheli	209
87	86	93	נֵרִיָּה	Neriah	207
88	108	147	רוֹי	Roy/Roi	206
89	94	78	אוריה	Uriah	201
90	72	84	אֱלִיאָב	Eliav	201
91	85	87	שִׁילֹה	Shilo	201
92	111	108	גַּבְרִיאֵל	Gabriel	197
93	81	82	יִנּוֹן	Yinon	197
94	103	125	אַדִּיר	Adir	195
95	96	112	אֵלִיעֶזֶר	Eliezer	195
96	79	81	דְּבִיר	Dvir	192
97	88	104	עוֹז	Oz	192
98	97	88	שַׁי	Shai	191
99	104	97	אוֹשֶׁר	Osher	189
100	116	86	תּוֹם	Tom	189
101	83	105	מַעֲיָין	Maayan	185

101 Most Popular Jewish Girls Names in Israel in 2016

April 22, 2018Namesbaby names, hebrew names, israel, jewish names, namesPhilip

[Update: The lists for 2017-2018 and 2019 are now available.]

I’m happy to release my list of the 101 most popular Jewish girls names in Israel for 2016, based on recently released data for that year. This follows up my earlier releases of lists for 2014 and 2015. You can also see the lists for the 101 Most Popular Boys Names in Israel in 2016.

Three girls names broke into the top 101 in 2016 – Arbel (which jumped all the way from 104 to 73), Shoshana (105 to 93), and Chava (107 to 101). The three names that left the list were Lior (90 to 104), Shilat (101 to 105) and Yaara (92 to 106).

2016 Rank	2015 Rank	2014 Rank	Name (Hebrew)	Name (English)	Number
1	2	2	תָּמָר	Tamar	1322
2	1	1	נוֹעָה	Noa	1293
3	4	8	אֲבִיגַיִל	Abigail	1182
4	3	4	מַאיָה	Maya	1178
5	9	5	יָעֵל	Yael	1106
6	6	6	אַדֶל	Adele	1101
7	7	3	שִׁירָה	Shira	1047
8	10	10	שָׂרָה	Sarah	1034
9	8	9	איילה	Ayala	1003
10	5	7	טַלְיָה	Talia	989
11	16	11	אֶסְתֵּר	Esther	870
12	14	16	לִיָה	Lia	791
13	13	14	חַנָּה	Chana (Hanna)	771
14	19	18	רִבְקָה	Rivka (Rebecca)	746
15	11	19	רוֹנִי	Roni	740
16	12	17	רוֹמִי	Romi	730
17	18	21	הוֹדָיָה	Hodaya	700
18	20	15	אֵלָה	Elah	690
19	15	13	מִיכַל	Michal	689
20	24	27	חַיָּה	Chaya	682
21	22	20	רָחֵל	Rachel	677
22	17	12	נוֹיָה	Noya	655
23	23	26	מִרְיָם	Miriam	645
24	33	35	אֵמָה	Emma	642
25	29	33	רוּת	Ruth	593
26	21	24	יוּבַל	Yuval	586
27	26	22	עַלְמָה	Alma	579
28	39	37	הַלֵּל	Hallel	573
29	28	29	אֲרִיאֵל	Ariel	568
30	30	25	תָּהֶל	Tahal	554
31	25	23	אֲגַם	Agam	549
32	27	32	נָעֳמִי	Naomi	504
33	36	31	לִיאַן	Lian/Leanne	476
34	37	39	גַּאיָה	Gaia	452
35	35	40	אֶפְרָת	Efrat	451
36	34	28	עֲדִי	Adi	451
37	31	34	נֹגַהּ	Noga	449
38	32	30	הִילָּה	Hila	435
39	52	45	נֶטַע	Neta	432
40	41	41	לֵאָה	Leah	414
41	42	52	אֶמִילִי	Emily	412
42	77	95	עוֹמֶר	Omer	408
43	62	47	הֲדַסָּה	Hadassa	405
44	40	42	תְּהִילָּה	Tehila	405
45	38	36	מַעֲיָין	Maayan	393
46	50	53	טוֹהָר	Tohar	387
47	51	43	נוֹעַם	Noam	380
48	43	55	יָהֵלִי	Yaheli	379
49	64	62	לִיבִּי	Libi	378
50	44	50	אוריה	Uria/Oria	374
51	55	61	מַלְכָּה	Malka	373
52	56	46	מִיקָה	Mika	369
53	58	57	הֲדַס	Hadas	360
54	45	51	עוֹפְרִי	Ofri	354
55	46	38	הָדָר	Hadar	350
56	47	48	נַעֲמָה	Naama	346
57	57	56	יְהוּדִית	Yehudit (Judith)	337
58	53	68	אֱלִישֶׁבַע	Elisheva (Elizabeth)	336
59	49	59	שָׁקֵד	Shaked	336
60	48	60	שִׁיר	Shir	331
61	60	54	אוֹרִי	Ori	324
62	54	67	אֲבִישַׁג	Avishag	316
63	59	49	עָמִית	Amit	307
64	85	92	שַׁי-לִי	Shaily	299
65	66	71	אַלְיָה	Aliya	282
66	69	74	דְּבוֹרָה	Dvora (Deborah)	282
67	68	64	דָּנִיֵּאל	Daniel	281
68	70	72	גֶּפֶן	Gefen	279
69	63	58	אוֹפִיר	Ophir	278
70	61	44	אוֹר	Or	277
71	65	63	לִיאֵל	Liel	272
72	80	85	שַׁי	Shai	263
73	104	114	אַרְבֵּל	Arbel	262
74	72	75	שַׁחַר	Shachar	259
75	79	76	אָנָּאֵל	Anael	243
76	74	66	עֵדֶן	Eden	240
77	67	65	מוֹרִיָּה	Moriah	237
78	78	86	אֲבִיָּה	Avia	236
79	81	90	אַלְמָה	Alma	235
80	82	69	אָלִין	Aleen	218
81	76	83	מַאי	May	217
82	84	73	גִּילִי	Gili	210
83	73	79	נֶחָמָה	Nechama	209
84	98	77	רוֹתֶם	Rotem	203
85	97	82	בִּרָכָה	Bracha	202
86	88	84	זוֹהַר	Zohar	201
87	96	88	אֲבִיטַל	Avital	196
88	71	78	יַרְדֵּן	Yarden (Jordan)	196
89	95	101	כַּרְמֶל	Carmel	192
90	75	70	שָׁנִי	Shani	192
91	87	81	אוֹדֶל	Odele	190
92	89	106	גַּלִּי	Gali	185
93	105	112	שׁוֹשַׁנָּה	Shoshana	181
94	94	94	אָבִיב	Aviv	176
95	86	91	דָּנִיֵּאלָה	Daniella	174
96	93	93	הִילִי	Hili	174
97	83	89	בַּת שֶׁבַע	Batsheva	171
98	100	98	צִפּוֹרָה	Tziporah	169
99	99	132	יוּלִי	Yuli (July)	166
100	91	87	אוֹרִין	Orin	165
101	107	97	חַוָּה	Chava	165