Thursday, February 16, 2012

Are Yiddishe names Yiddish?

Somehow the subject of Yiddish names came up recently. Although I expect many readers to know all about this, it also seems that many do not realize quite the way they used to be perceived. Today it is not uncommon for a boy to receive a name like Zalman at his bris, but in the past this was almost never what happened. A boy who would be called Zalman, or even Shlomo Zalman, was invariably given the name Shlomo. This became known as his shem kodesh the holy - Hebrew - name, and when he grew up it was the name he'd be called to the Torah with. Some time after the bris there might be a small ceremony where he'd be given the name Zalman, which is what he would actually be called. This name was the shem chol, the secular or pehraps better, daily - name.

This was an old Ashkenazic custom going back to early medieval times; certainly in some places there may not have been a ceremony, but they just started calling the baby by the Yiddish, or German, or Judeo-German equivalent of the Hebrew name. It was known as "chol kreisch," which I guess means something like "calling of the secular [name]," although it must be pointed out that it is spelled "Hollekreisch" in Latin letters, and some pesky scholars conjecture that it refers to a female demon called Holle or Hulda who was active in bothering babies in German speaking lands many centuries ago. See M. Guedemann ספר התורה והחיים בארצות המערב בימי הבינים vol. II (Warsaw 1898) p.85 (link). It must be noted though that as early as the 15th century the term was explained by a rabbi as referring to chol in the sense of secular - see Maharam Minz (#19). While this cannot fully refute the previously mentioned conjecture, surely it is notable that this was asserted in the still demon-haunted middle ages. Besides, the Jews had their own baby demon, Lilith. Actually I think that fact can be used to support either conjecture.

The ceremony continued into recent times, and perhaps still continues (as opposed to being resurrected by Neo-Ashkenazim, as undoubtedly it also has). Here for example is the "liturgy" to be recited at such a ceremony as printed in Seligmann Baer's Seder Avodat Yisrael (Roedelheim 1868):



As an example of the two-name phenomenon, although I do not claim that these represents cases of a ceremony, many medieval Asheknazic rabbis were called Leon, and are referred to as "Rabbi Leon" in the literature. Some are sometimes called Rabbi Yehuda or Aryeh and the like, so we plainly see that at least some of them had both names. In all likelihood the Hebrew name was what they were named at the circumcision, while Leon was what they were called on a daily basis, no different from the "Leib" of later time. For example, the rebbe of Rabbenu Gershom was named Rabbi Leon (sometimes Leontin). See Maharam Rothenburg (#264): "ר' ליאון רבי שלמדני רוב תלמודי זצ"ל חכם מופלא."

No one really thought of these names as anything more than nicknames. They were not holy Jewish names. Naturally, however, an entire literature developed around the proper spelling - and origin - of these names, since when writing gittin - divorce documents - halacha requires precision even in spelling. See for starters Beit Yosef Even Haezer 129, where the spelling of names, including Leon, is discussed (this is only the tip of the iceberg for this literature).

As an illustration of this, here is the title page of a book from 1789:



This collection of R. Mordechai Halberstadt's responsa was published posthumously by his grandson, who included some of his father's own original Torah insights as well, under the title Lechem Eden. The title page informs us that the name of these are derived from a word play on his father's name: "ששמו הקודש מנחם ושמו החול מענדל מכוונים בתיבות הללו," "For his holy name, Menachem, and his secular name, Mendel, are intended by these words."

39 comments:

  1. מן, מאניש, מאנדל and מענכין would be immediate cousins.

    Aside from animal names, can you work out the formula for determining one's Judeo-German name? Could we reëngineer it for a handy list of English-but-Jewish(ish) names to match currently popular Hebrew ones?

    Also, don't you get the sense that with women they went straight for a secular name? In the Chabad community, for instance, it seems like 50% of the female population has Russian/Yiddish names, often exclusively.

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  2. In 5 minutes, no. But with the aid of books we can probably pair off most Hebrew names that were used with choices for equivalents. We could probably transpose many, if not all, into English.

    As for women, they did indeed go straight for the non-Hebrew name. Seems like for most of the past 1000 years Jewish women, whether Ashkenazim or Sefardim or Edot Hamizrah, did not have, as a rule, strictly Hebrew names - or at least in practice never had an opportunity for using them, so I'm not sure what the difference is. No one needs to give all the exceptions, I'm aware of them. I should mention that in the Maharam Minz teshuva he discussed whether Rekhlein (spelled with a khaf) and Rahel (the Hebrew name) are the same.

    In general there are different naming conventions with women and men (that goes across all cultures) so I'm not sure if it's too significant if many Shaynas and Tobas have brothers called mainly Aryeh and Moshe.

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  3. Surely you know about the 'neo-ashknazi' Hamburger in his book שרשי מנהג אשכנז ח''א has a exposition about the Chol Krisch.

    "Seems like for most of the past 1000 years Jewish women, whether Ashkenazim or Sefardim or Edot Hamizrah, did not have, as a rule, strictly Hebrew names"
    Actually it's much older then that see the four volumes of Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity from Tal Ilan.

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  4. I should also point out something I did not make clear in the post - it's not just "Hey, חול sounds like Holle!" It's also that the form of the ritual; people gathering around and calling out "חולקרייש, חולקרייש, חולקרייש" and "What should we name the child?" and in some cases involving making circuits around the bassinet sounds like a demon-warding ritual. The fact that there was such a demon with, essentially, that name makes it plausible.

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  5. No in Washington Heights (i.e. Breuers) as far as I am aware performs the Hollekrisch ceremony. Nor have I heard from anyone there that they used to do it. I wonder if this simply stopped when they came to America or if it was already out of style in Frankfurt.

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  6. Some sources I read indicated that it was more common in rural Southern Germany, so perhaps it wasn't a Frankfurt practice altogether.

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  7. S:

    perhaps you can tell me what you make of this http://www.hebrewbooks.org/38223. If his real name was Moshe, wouldn't they have at least make some mention of it? Also, the gematria at the bottom of the page (see also pg. 4, 5) is predicated on Mazuz and not the author's real (Hebrew) name. Unless of course he didn't have one. Besides, wouldn't the Hungarianization of Moshe > Moses be spelled dif.?

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  8. Ovadya, Well I'm not going to comment on the specifics of this individual (at least not yet) but tentatively I will say that this is of a pattern that you will find beginning in the 19th century quite extensively (and a little at the end of the 18th). His name probably was "Moshe" at his bris, but Moses he was in daily life. It was to a degree a part of the enlightenment/ assimilationist trend, probably also an extension of the fact that many Jews [still] wrote German in Hebrew letters; really German, not Yiddish.

    For example, look at the subscription list to this Tanakh from 1818 - at the end.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=DGQtAAAAYAAJ

    Even names like "Ephraim" are spelled "עפראים." That is, the Hebrew names which are also German names are spelled in a way to make no mistake that these are the German names, even though spelled with Hebrew letters. It gets better: the "Davids" are "דאוויד."

    Getting back to Moses and these other folks, its entirely possible that they utterly did not see a distinction between being "Moses" or "Joachim" and any other Jew being called "Zelmele" or "Yoilish," none of these being Hebrew names. This was their shem chol. Rabbi Leontin, rabbo shel Rabbenu Gershom Meor Hagolah. Moshe hamechuneh Moses. Shlomo Zalman hamechuneh Scott. That's what I'm thinking. The only real difference is that 100 years earlier Jews were not giving names like Joachim or Moses as their shem chol.

    I don't think it's supposed to be Hungarian, but German (which was still very influential in Hungary, even after 1848).

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  9. Names are always a touchy issue. My father's third name is "Hertz", and he gets very sensitive if called to an aliyah by "Hersh". As an aside, due to his very unusual back story, I'm told he did not know of his middle names until later in life. This presented an issue as my older brother had served as a witness on a few gitten while in away in yeshiva. I have to ask him how the problem was resolved, I do remember him having to bring the issue to the beis din that he was a part of.
    Also, one of the things I fondly remember as a teenager is sitting at a Shabbos table by a mutual friends house (you know who) and coming up with the worst possible names we could give our children. Yiddish names were very high on the "I don't like it" list.

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  10. S.,
    Interesting post. I wonder how you factor into this, the Yiddishized sefardic names, like שניאור from "senor" or שפרינצה from Esperanza.

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  11. It's still (as opposed to newly) done in Switzerland and, I think, the French Alsace region.

    Talking about French, another proposed etymology is French haut la crêche ('up with the cot'), which corresponds to the lifting of the cot during the hollekraash. The Frau Holle thing is very improbable in my eyes, as she isn't just a common folklore demon but appears in a very limited context (see Wikipedia).

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  12. I do not see any mention of the yiddish terms "rufnomen" and "oyfruf-nomen"...

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  13. Shprintzè is the Yiddish cellphone service provider.

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    1. "Shprintzè is the Yiddish cellphone service provider."

      Rarely does an internet comment literally make one laugh out loud.

      Delete
  14. Very fittingly, given that it means Hope.

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  15. Lipman, why is that fitting?

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  16. People are complaining about Sprint all the time. (Then again, that's probably true for all telecommunication companies.)

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  17. True, but what's the connection to "hope"?

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    Replies
    1. Shprintze is supposedly derived from the (Judeo-)Spanish word Esperenza meaning hope. In Hebrew, girls are sometimes similarly named Tikvah.

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  18. People always hope they well get service.

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  19. Elisheva Baumgarten's book "Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe" devotes a good portion of a chapter to the Hollekreisch among other post-birth rituals dating to medieval Ashkenaz, if you want to read more on the practice.

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  20. In all my nearly 50 years of genealogical research I have never encountered your claim that couplet names such as Shlomo-Zalman were not both given at the Bris. Nor have I ever found reference to a custom of holding a separate occasion to give the second name.
    I would appreciate your sources.
    Chaim Freedman
    http://chfreedman.blogspot.com/
    http://eliyahusbranches.blogspot.com/

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  21. Although names given at a brit may not have been recorded officially, most Mohelim kept "Bris books". I have those used by my wife's grandfather who was a Mohel in Australia.
    Other records are kept by synagogues where members names (in full) are needed for Yahrtzeit reminders, call-up aids etc.
    Full couplet names are used on Ketuvot, Gittin and tombstones.
    Then there are family Sifrei Kodesh where parents or grandparents recorded births, marriages and deaths.
    Although people may have been called by one of the couplet names in day to day practice, the full double name was often used by parents when the kid was naughty, or as a term of endearment between parents, siblings, spouses. My grandparents, while using my secular name Keith, from time to time called me by my Hebrew/Yiddish name Chaim-Koppel.
    In Charedei circles the full double name is often used. I have a cousin who insists that his kids be referred to only by their double names.

    Polish and Russian records usually used secular name Yankel, Yossel, etc and hardly ever Yaakov and Yosef.
    Where there were couplet names successive documents sometimes used different "halves" of the couplet, thus confusing the genealogist.
    So they are not evidence.

    Perhaps the author of this blog is confusing Yiddish/Hebrew couplet names with secular names.

    Chaim Freedman
    chaimjan@zahav.net.il

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  22. In the biography of R. Hirsch by E.Klugman there is a paragraph on Samson Raphael and Chol Kreisch ceremony.

    AVAKESH from avakesh.com

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  23. This subject drives me nuts. I know a Shlome who gave his son the name Zalman. They are a
    distinguished Rabbinical family. I couldn't resist so with trepidation I brought it up. I was told it wasn't the same name. I'm from the proletariat so what do I know. I think they trotted out the Mateh Ephraim for proof.

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  24. שלמה and זלמן used to be the same name but once the distinction between the shem chol and shem kodesh was lost it became two names.
    BTW since when is שניאור an ashkenazification of senor? IIRC one of the ba'alei hatosfos was called שניאור.

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  25. I send a query about this subject to a number of informed contacts, one of whom wrote:

    "One qualifier: In Yekke tradition a girl got her shem kadosh in shul after birth then a month later on Shabbat all the little girls would raise her cradle while calling out "Holle, Holle, Holle"! At that time she was given her goyish name and her parents hosted a Kidusha Raba in honor of the occasion. That event was called "Hollekreis." No one is sure of the meaning of all this but it's theorized that Kreis means to call out. Holle may have been a Teutonic female demon or guardian summoned to protect the new born girl.
    We learned this when we had our daughter and a month later were up to having a kiddush in honor of ther event. Even though we didn't raise her cradle or give her a paralel name all the old Yekkes who were still young then walked in and greeted us with Hollekreis. There is actually an article on this in the old Jewish Encyclopedia."

    So this explains the situation which I have not encountered: It was a custom of German Jewish communities.

    Chaim Freedman

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  26. In reply to Mendel, according to the late Rabbi Shmuel Gorr, genealogist and authority on Jewish name, some derivative names such as Zalman attained status independantly of their source, Shlomo. As such it is valid for a father Zalman to give his son the name Shlomo. Similarly there are cases of a Yehudah calling his son Leib, or visa versa.

    Chaim Freedman

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  27. So it's ok to have a son Zvi and another name Hertz?

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  28. And another son named Hertz?

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  29. I'm surprised no one is aware that with some chassidim someone who is named a Hebrew name will be called by the Yiddish nickname.

    A prominent example of this is the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg known as Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum. His actual given name is Yekusiel Yehuda, as can be seen on letters he signs.

    People named only Tzvi are often called Hersh, Menachems are called Mendel, Yehudas called Leib or Yiddel, and so forth.

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  30. It is truly a wonderful thing that we all have and use Jewish names. But the exceptions require no pilpul--the answer is quite simple: this was not always the case.

    Esperanza (Shprintze) is a Spanish name, not a Sephardi one. The same, more obviously, is true of Juanita (Yenta). But forget Yiddish and Spanish--what about Aritobulus, Hyrcanus, Huna, Papa?

    Also: who says a son and father can't have the same name? Is it one of those R. Yehuda HaChasid things? In my (Sephardi) family we have fathers and sons with the same first name for five generations.

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  31. I haven't seen mention of Greek inspired names - such as Kalman and Faivel.

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  32. they say that the source of the name shneur is that once a father wanted to name a baby meir and a mother wanted to name shraga. since both are forms of light, they compromisded on shnei-ohr - meaning 2 lights. whether this is true or not, r' shneur is definitely a ba'al tosfos from france and not named after a spanish name like senor.

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  33. Re: "Naturally, however, an entire literature developed around the proper spelling - and origin - of these names": very early in my ketuba-writing career, I wrote one for a kallah named Gittel Yente. She herself disliked her second name and had no idea how to spell it. Naive as I was in those days, I did not check with the mesadder kiddushin (the Bistritzer Rov), but instead asked a friend who had studied Yiddish in college. He recommended a final "ayin." But as I found out only on the day of the wedding, the rov insisted on an "alef." So I had to perform surgery at the chosson's tish and change all the ayins to alefs.

    My grandmother's "shem kodesh" was Dobrish. My theory is that this was a Slavic equivalent of Tovah or Gittel, but others insist that it was a form of Devorah. I wonder if it began as the former and developed into the latter.

    The etymology that R. Benzion Kaganoff gave for "Yente" was not Juanita but Gentille.

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  34. "In Yekke tradition a girl got her shem kadosh in shul after birth then a month later on Shabbat all the little girls would raise her cradle while calling out "Holle, Holle, Holle"!"

    In the old Yekke tradition the girls got the name at home only, not in Shul. Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger שליט"א explains, that it was held that giving a name is to be properly done in the presence of the one getting the name ('the namee'), rather than in their absence. That is what happens at the bris of a male, and at the hollekreisch with a girl, in her home.

    As was stated above, interested readers should see the very comprehensive chapter on it in Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz I, p.415-455.

    One can also see some information on it in brief at http://www.moreshesashkenaz.org/mm/publications/Madrich.pdf, pages 40-41.

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  35. To Anon 10:20:

    A trip to the old Sefardi cemetery in Oude Kerk, near Amsterdam, will confirm the preponderance of the name Shneur among Spanish-Portuguese Jews.
    (See here: http://j.mp/Apbyv1)

    The mention of using the name shneur as a compromise between the names Meir and Shraga is probably an ex post facto interpretation - something very commonly found with foreign words in Yiddish.

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