Parashat Shemot, 5778
The Power of Your Hebrew Name
A D’var for Parashat Shemot
by Rabbi Irwin Huberman ’10
A popular website which monitors facts relating to pregnancy, birth, and babies recently released its list of the most popular baby names for 2017.
According to this site, BabyCenter, top names for newborn boys were Jackson, Liam, Noah, and Aiden. For baby girls the most popular choices were Sophia, Olivia, Emma, and Ava.
Those who study these trends also note that names like Asher, Ezra, Atticus, and LeBron are on the upswing, along with Cora, Isabella, Amelia, and Charlotte.
Those are the secular choices. But what about Judaism? Although few statistics are kept within the Jewish world, we can remain pretty confident that worldwide there was no significant change between 2017 and 2016, or for that matter, for hundreds of previous years.
This is largely because, within Judaism, we attach a unique meaning to names. The Kabbalistic tradition links word for a person’s soul – Neshama – Read More >