English Names & Their Origins

[thedaffodils]

Hi! I am wondering whether parents would choose an English name with Hebrew orgin for their if the babe doesn't has Jew's blood.

For examples, Gabrielle orginates from Hebrew; Flora from Greece.

By the way, I think Flora is not a very well-known English name among native English speaking countries, such as the US, isn't it?

Thanks in advance!

[Raymott]

Hi! I am wondering whether parents would choose an English name with Hebrew orgin for their if the babe doesn't has Jew's blood.

For examples, Gabrielle orginates from Hebrew; Flora from Greece.

By the way, I think Flora is not a very well-known English name among native English speaking countries, such as the US, isn't it?

Thanks in advance!

I doubt whether non-Jews would pick a specifically Jewish name like Moses. But many names of "Jewish" origin are common, and used by anyone - Isaac, Rebecca, etc.

[Anglika]

Flora from Greece.

Flora comes from the Latin and means flower.

It was a popular name at the end of the 19th century and the start of the last century, but has fallen out of fashion. It may well come back.

Names come in and out of fashion.

[thedaffodils]

I doubt whether non-Jews would pick a specifically Jewish name like Moses. But many names of "Jewish" origin are common, and used by anyone - Isaac, Rebecca, etc.

Thanks a lot, Raymott.

[thedaffodils]

Flora comes from the Latin and means flower.

It was a popular name at the end of the 19th century and the start of the last century, but has fallen out of fashion. It may well come back.

Names come in and out of fashion.

Hi Anglika,

Thank you very much for your answers. I had thought Flora is derived from Greece, which a Chinese book about English names suggests.

[Barb_D]

If you don't mind a side comment, you used the phrase "if the babe doesn't has Jew's blood"

Aside from the grammar (doesn't have, not doesn't has), better phrasing would be "if the baby doesn't have Jewish ancestry."

"Jew" as an adjective is offensive, and "a Jew's blood" is just not very polite-sounding phrasing.

(Also as a side note, my older daughter has a very "Herbrew" sounding name (Rebecca Judith) while my younger one has a Greek name. In the US, we pick names we think sound pretty, without a lot of worry about their origins.)

[thedaffodils]

If you don't mind a side comment, you used the phrase "if the babe doesn't has Jew's blood"

Aside from the grammar (doesn't have, not doesn't has), better phrasing would be "if the baby doesn't have Jewish ancestry."

"Jew" as an adjective is offensive, and "a Jew's blood" is just not very polite-sounding phrasing.

(Also as a side note, my older daughter has a very "Herbrew" sounding name (Rebecca Judith) while my younger one has a Greek name. In the US, we pick names we think sound pretty, without a lot of worry about their origins.)

Hi Barb_D,

Thank you very much for your corrections and comments. You're very helpful. Please feel free to point out my mistakes, especially some offensive words, that I make, so that I won't offend some people unwittingly, and then have to say sorry to them in the future.