My husband and I are considering the name [name]Cohen[/name] for our future baby but I’ve read in a few spots about it being disrespectful or offensive to those in the Jewish community. Is anyone able to weigh in on this to let me know if they think it would end up being a problem?
I would also consider the spelling [name]Coen[/name] but wouldn’t want to have people pronounce it the Dutch way. Does anyone know a [name]Coen[/name] who’s name is pronounced [name]Cohen[/name]?
There have been a number of discussions about this on nameberry in the past. This one is pretty thorough and, if memory serves correctly, shows both sides of the argument:
I’m pretty sure in the US people would pronounce “[name]Coen[/name]” like [name]Cohen[/name]. A lot of people are familiar with the [name]Coen[/name] brothers (filmmakers). Personally I prefer [name]Conan[/name], because it avoids controversy (and its super cute) but that’s just my opinion.
[name]Hope[/name] that helps!
I don’t know a [name]Coen[/name] or a [name]Cohen[/name], but half my family is Jewish and I don’t think any of us would take offense to the name [name]Cohen[/name]. People use the name [name]Jesus[/name], [name]Mary[/name], [name]Moses[/name], etc… I like the name [name]Cohen[/name] and I don’t think you should worry about it.
There have been heated debates about this name. Personally, I don’t see a huge problem with it, but I think it would be best to avoid the possibility of offending someone. There are lots of similar sounding names, like [name]Conan[/name], [name]Rowan[/name], [name]Cole[/name], or [name]Owen[/name].
I’m afraid, as a Conservative Jew, I would be offended at a Gentile child named [name]Cohen[/name]. The cohenim are an important part of religious Judaism. I would imagine a Jewish child named [name]Jesus[/name] would offend some Christians. A friend of my son’s renamed herself Shekhinah (which is the female name for G-d) and I find it very offensive and so does my son, because in Judaism you do not use or write the appellations of G-d. She is an evangelical and did it because she thought she was honoring the relationship between Jews and Christians, so we are okay with it now, I guess.
Why not name your child Cohan, which is an Irish surname, so fits in with the trends now, and would honor the great Irish-American songwriter and entertainer, [name]George[/name] M Cohan? It’s pronounced almost exactly the same way in English ([name]Cohen[/name] is koh-hayn in Hebrew) and would offend no one.
You should only name your son [name]Cohen[/name] if you plan to name his sister Rosenberg.
[name]IMO[/name], [name]Cohen[/name] is a name that in the future will be seen as “country” because it would mean the child was raised somewhere where [name]Cohen[/name] is imagined as a first name instead of a dermatologist.
before reading the post i allready had liked the name just from the title. it reminds of that programme ‘the o.c’ and summer used to call seth that (sorry lol that show was huge in my teens). but then i see from reading there is some history with the name, i dont undersatnd what that is (will google though) and thats because i live in New Zealand and the jewish community/jewish influence in our society is small and slim. If you live in a country or town that doesnt have much of a jewish population i would go with it, but if you do then based on from what other people have said about offending others then i wouldnt choose it. Its a shame really cause it has a nice ring to it and is like the other last names that are becoming first names, cooper/carter ect.
I have a 2 year old son name [name]Coen[/name] and neither my husband or I are Jewish. I love this name and have not had anyone say anything to me. Unless you name your baby something traditional you’re going to get someone somewhere making comments. I personally like uncommon baby names, traditional names are so boring. I say if you like it, use it. Who cares what people think! There are too many people out there with something to say about everything. [name]Don[/name]'t worry so much.
Wow [name]Cohen[/name] is my favorite name right now and i had no idea it could be offensive to anyone. I’ve never looked up the meaning and i also have never known any Jewish people. (Guess I’ve been living under a rock?!?!). if i was actually naming a child i would put that into consideration but if you do not have a large Jewish population where you live you wouldn’t have to worry about offending others.
My son (age 5) is actually named [name]Coen[/name]. My husband and I found the name in a namebook while vacationing in Australia. In that book, it was said to be an aboriginal name meaning “thunder”, though nowhere else have I really seen that. There is not typically any trouble with pronunciation, though I’ve often seen parents in preschool spell it as [name]Cohen[/name] on his projects. We love it because its unusual without being too strange.
When it comes to naming a human being, I think “better safe than sorry” is a good rule of thumb. [name]True[/name], you might currently live in an area where the Jewish community isn’t very large, but this may not be true of your son. In an increasingly globalized world, where a name may be the only thing employers or colleagues know about you, I think it’s best to choose one that doesn’t come with a political/cultural/religious stigma attached.
Like miloowen, I am also a Conservative Jew, and I find this name very offensive. “[name]Cohen[/name]” means priest in Hebrew and is a very sacred word and name. [name]Coen[/name] is just a different spelling of [name]Cohen[/name] that is usually pronounced the same way. I agree with the choice Cohan–why not?
There is a non-Jewish boy named [name]Cohen[/name] in my son’s preschool class, so I realize this name is getting quite popular. I’m just sort of surprised that so many people are using this name without considering (or even looking into) its meaning. I am a very non-religious Jew, married to an athiest, and still the fact that non-Jewish people are naming their kids this makes me uncomfortable. I think it just shows a level of ignorance and disrespect for a large group of people in the world. This is not directed at the OP, but to those who choose this name without researching or considering its meaning, or assume that it doesn’t matter because there are no Jews in your area, you’re setting your child up for some potentially difficult situations, like the PP mentioned. There are so many other great names out there!
I was shocked to find that people are naming their kids [name]Cohen[/name]. :shock: No offense to anyone, but to me it really makes the parents seem ignorant, for reasons already stated here. [name]Just[/name] my opinion.
I’m not Jewish, but I have worked with several older Jewish men and women, and I believe they would be offended by the name. I think that miloowen gives you the perfect alternative- Cohan- that is utterly non-offensive, but still a great name (basically the same name imo). I went to grade school with a girl named Shekhinah, who went exclusively by “[name]Glory[/name]”, at the time I had no idea about what the name meant, we just all thought it was strange.
As a [name]Christian[/name], I personally find it distasteful when people use the name [name]Jesus[/name], and I can’t imagine what kind of reaction I’d have if someone named their son [name]Christ[/name]. I would be so utterly offended. So, I can see how some Jewish people will find [name]Cohen[/name] offensive. I think that people who use it either don’t know the meaning, or have decided that it isn’t an issue for them. I don’t intend by any means to accuse you of being insensitive! If you were, you wouldn’t have asked about it.
I’d like to address people’s geographical arguments. [name]Just[/name] because you don’t currently live in an area where the name would be found offensive even once, that doesn’t mean you will always live in an area like that or that your child will always live in an area like that his entire life. The same goes for name popularity. I hear things like “[name]Oliver[/name] is sooo popular here, I’d never use it.” But, if you sample names from just a few miles away, [name]Oliver[/name] isn’t even on the radar. So, I don’t think the geographical arguments have any real staying power, so don’t worry about them too much. I think what might have some real bearing is whether or not the name fits with your family and your culture. eg, I wouldn’t use a Chinese name in my family because no one could pronounce or spell it, but I could use a unique or obscure Latin name because most of the adults in my family have studied Latin at some point, or I could use a unique/obscure Celtic name since that is part of our heritage.
Saddling a kid with a controversial name isn’t fair. While I don’t think many people would be confrontational with someone who named their kid [name]Cohen[/name], and I sure hope no one would be confrontational with the kid himself since he didn’t pick his name, I think there are good names out there that don’t carry this weight. Saddling a kid with an odd name is a gamble, but far less detrimental. Heck, there was a girl on ‘[name]Say[/name] Yes to the Dress’ named Duvet (her mom said she was comforter in their lives!), and she was no worse for the wear!
The Irish Koehane and Cohan are great names that sound so close to either pn of [name]Cohen[/name].
I knew a girl with ln Koehane pn [name]Coe[/name]-h[name]AYn[/name], and Cohan is pn [name]Coe[/name]-han. I think either of those do quite nicely.
I would have to agree with those who say that naming your son [name]Cohen[/name] would be offensive to many Jews. I’m a non-religious Jew, and I think the part that I find the strangest about using “[name]Cohen[/name]” as a first name is that the parents who do so are not Jews themselves–they’re not doing it out of respect for the name and the meaning, in most cases, but because they like the sound. If Jewish parents decided to use the name, that would be another story.
I think the analogy of non-Muslims naming their child [name]Mohammed[/name], or non-Christians naming their child [name]Jesus[/name] or [name]Christ[/name], just because they thought those names sounded cool, and not out of respect for the religious tradition of those names, is a good one. I imagine none of those names would go over well with followers of those faiths, and I think that would be the case with the majority of the Jews out there who encountered a first-named [name]Cohen[/name]. (For those who were not offended, they would at least find it odd–why not name your kid Goldstein or Rosenberg while you’re at it? The name [name]Cohen[/name] is very firmly entrenched in the Jewish community as a surname…though I do know surname-names are a big trend, some names just don’t transition well, and to any Jew, or anyone who grew up around Jews, [name]Cohen[/name] would likely be one of those names, given its immense popularity–even right here, I can tell you I know a bunch of Cohens–my mother’s entire side of the family!)
In short, names do have greater implications than just their sounds–something all the participants at Namberry seem very aware of–and I think you would have to take that into consideration when naming a child [name]Cohen[/name].
I wrote a piece for The [name]Daily[/name] Beast about the name [name]Cohen[/name] a few years ago that pretty much lays out the trend and the arguments for and against using the name. Here’s the link: The Daily Beast
My professional opinion on this is that using the first name [name]Cohen[/name] IS offensive and really should not be done. Virtually all the new baby Cohens are the children of non-Jews who live in non-Jewish areas and don’t know any Jews, which is why they don’t realize the meaning and problem with using the name. Varying the name to Cohan makes sense if you are truly wed to its sound.
Saying that it’s all right to use [name]Cohen[/name] if you live in a place where there aren’t many religious Jews is kind of like saying it’s okay to make racist or sexist jokes if you’re not around blacks or women. To me, it’s simply not okay, and I am not Jewish and my husband isn’t Jewish.
I agree with pretty much everyone on this board. I would avoid [name]Cohen[/name] completely.
I would never consider this name either, for all the many reasons already stated.
I am still a little shocked that it is still moving up on the charts.
[name]Pam[/name], Very interesting & informative article in The [name]Daily[/name] Beast, thanks for posting the link.
[name]Just[/name] as an update, we’ve decided to go with another name. Thanks for your input and feedback everyone.