I hope I didn’t offend anyone with my origional post!! [name]Cohen[/name] is a name that I have completely fallen in love with, but then I learned the meaning behind it. As much as a I want to use it, all I can think about is people using the name [name]Jesus[/name], which bothers and offends me so incredibly much.
The more I see it, I’m opening up more to the spelling [name]Coen[/name], so maybe that will be an option. Maybe Cowen, Cowan, or Cowyn are options…hmm, I don’t know if I like the “Cow” part at the beginning though. I’m worried that maybe he’ll be called Cow, or people will say it as Cow-en. I’ll have to think about those more.
Thank you everyone for your opinions, I really appreciate them! And again, I am SO sorry if I have offended anyone!
Oh no! Now I hope I didn’t make you feel that way littlelady! The very title of your post shows that your are sincerely concerned and I think you showed a thoughtfulness in wondering about the name and asking for opinions. I was more commenting on the thread as a whole, but I don’t think you did anything wrong
I’m just a people pleaser (as you can probably tell from my post haha) so I just wanted to make sure I didn’t offened anyone!
What does everyone think of Cohan? That’s probably my favorite spelling, aside from [name]Cohen[/name]. Does anyone know of where I can find some info on this name? I think I saw that it’s an Irish surname, but I’m not positive on that.
As for [name]Coen[/name], I saw that it was [name]German[/name], but that may be wrong. It could very well be Dutch.
[name]Little[/name] lady, your post is not offensive. The people posting claiming it didnt matter because you would never run into any Jew in your whole life were offensive. Its not like we live in one little place and never interact with other people!
That being said, while I think [name]Cohen[/name] has too much baggage, if you love it…go for it. If you desire you find something else I’m sure you will pick something great
A friend of mine named her little boy [name]Cohen[/name] and I don’t think anyone has been offended about it. Some people are easily offended - and clearly you are not using [name]Cohen[/name] to be offensive.
Cohan is Irish and a great alternative. Also, it was the surname of one of our wonderful originals, [name]George[/name] M Cohan, the great composer and performer. You can say coh’n, cohen, or cohan as a prn. I don’t know its meaning, but it’s easy to find.
No one is objecting, littlelady, to your OP and your other comments. You seem sweet and earnest in your concerns. It’s these other posters that really make me worried for our society and this website. The ignorance in some of these posts is astounding. The person who posted the Jew in the forest comment (and used an apostrophe incorrectly at that) should be asked to leave the site, [name]Pam[/name], if you’re out there, I think you need to check in on some of these comments.
And [name]Ariana[/name]/[name]Arianna[/name] is the Spanish, Italian, and other languages’ version of [name]Ariadne[/name]. Has nothing to do with Aryans.
It’s some of the other posters. Personally, I thought part of good parenting was preparing your kid to live in a big, diverse world, celebrating your own culture and also respecting other people’s. So some of the replies of “lol its not a big deal” just seem myopic and ignorant. I can understand liking the sound of the name, though. Years ago I liked [name]Dakota[/name] for the sound, but some [name]Sioux[/name] people I spoke to said they found it hurtful and not very nice, so I set it aside as pleasant-sounding but unusable.
“Whatever you like best” isn’t always a great guide. I guess I don’t get how, if the sound is the thing, similar-sounding non-inflammatory isn’t just as good by any standard not rotating around making a “I can do what I want!” point at your child’s expense. Oh, they won’t have any [other group] friends, ever? And you’ve already decided this for them? And where they can live as adults, as well? That just seems strange to me.
There’s a lot of cool names out there. So the whole “but I want THIS one, spelt THIS way” just seems odd to me. Not a smack at the original poster, Littlelady seems chill.
I feel exactly the same way. I am Jewish as well, and I feel extremely uncomfortable with anyone naming their child this.
I agree that an alternative like [name]Coen[/name] or Cowan is preferable. Or, if it is the “h” in the middle that you like, littlelady, there are plenty of other names out there that have that, like [name]Graham[/name] for example. I hope that helps, and thank you so much for being open-minded and respectful in this thread.
My son’s name is [name]Cohen[/name]. When my husband suggested the name over 6 years ago, I remember doing a quick search for the meaning (not sure if I had a book or what), and the first meaning I found was “brave”. That was all the looking I did, because that convinced me that [name]Cohen[/name] “brave” would be the perfect name for our little boy! We tossed around possible spellings, but it has been a pet peeve of mine when people take a perfectly good spelling and butcher it for the sake of being “cool” or “different”. So my vote was for the usual spelling.
Several years later, my parents visited some friends in Jerusalem and of course their grandchildren surfaced in conversation (probably immediately ;)). It was then that we learned the Jewish meaning for [name]Cohen[/name]. They do not recall there being any hard feelings, maybe surprise, but that’s it. When they told me, I actually thought it was cool. We are [name]Christ[/name] followers, and the Bible says in 1 [name]Peter[/name] 2:9: “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” So my son’s name meaning priest, surely fit what we believe to be true, in [name]Christ[/name].
I was unaware of the controversial nature of this name until I came across this thread. Honestly, we have only received compliments on the name, and most people are unaware of the meaning unless I mention it. There have been a few questions if we’re Jewish, but I’ve always assumed that’s because it’s a common surname. The only person to ever pronounce the “h” is my husband’s 90 yr old [name]German[/name] grandmother, LOL.
All that to say, if I had of known that “[name]Cohen[/name]” would be offensive to some, I would have seriously considered spelling it “[name]Coen[/name]” or “[name]Koen[/name]”.
Best of luck to you, littlelady! Naming can be so, so difficult!
