So in my family, its traditional/common to match the initial of your Hebrew name (which is taken from a name of an ancestor) to your English name.
Sometimes its a direct match, i.e. a [name]Yosef[/name] becomes a [name]Joseph[/name]. Sometimes it’s more just the initial, a [name]Hanan[/name] becomes a [name]Harvey[/name], for example.
Which led to a debate/squabble with my sister about the right initial for a sound that does not exist in English. It’s the sound of Czar/[name]General[/name] Tso/Tsunami and the names are often transliterated into English as for example Tzipporah. Sometimes also spelled [name]Zipporah[/name]. [name]Hence[/name] our debate!
Would you use:
The T. This is my sister’s argument. She says that’s the oldest, most traditional English spellings. That sometimes its Tsvi and sometimes Tzvi but the T is there and Z would “be wrong and also look worse.”
Z, as in [name]Zvi[/name], [name]Zipporah[/name], etc. Because a hard T is further from the sound, and there are no sibiliant Tsunami type attractive T names anyway. This is my thought at the moment.
Unhelpful, but amusing: My husband says the correct answer is X, as it’s a “mysterious letter that is neither T nor Z and people seem unclear on its use.” However, he doesn’t like any X names.
I would think of this as an opportunity to have the ability to name a child with any of these letters simply because limiting yourself to just one is, well, limiting. [name]Zipporah[/name] is a fun name!
It boils down to how religious you are, if you feel that you need to honor the initial name that much, then use Tzipporah. If you’re less religious and don’t mind bending it a bit, use [name]Zipporah[/name].
Keep in mind that unless you’re living in a highly Jewish area, it’s likely that Tzipporah will be a trying name for a child to have. [name]Zipporah[/name] is easier.
I would go more by the sound, so I think something starting with a Z. [name]Zoe[/name], for example, sounds a lot closer to Tzipporah than something like [name]Tabitha[/name]… Or what about using a name that rhymes since the first letter is a bit tricky, something like [name]Norah[/name]??
Being Jewish, and living in a community where going by one’s Hebrew name is the norm (and even having a secular name is not anymore!), i prefer the more phonetic spelling. I’d cringe to hear someone named Tzipporah called [name]Zipporah[/name] and having it pronounced with the Z, it would sound really off to me. When it comes to anglicizing names, for whatever purpose, its more logical to me to use either the actual English cognate if one exists (ie: [name]Jonathan[/name] for Yonatan), a name with a close overall sound (not just a matching initial), or a name with a parallel meaning. Ie: Tzipporah means bird, so i’d consider a secular name that means bird, or a particular type of bird.
That last method isn’t so far-fetched, at least not in my community - it’s common to translate an old-fashioned sounding Yiddish name into a more modern Hebrew equivalent. So, for example, Berel becomes [name]Dov[/name], or Shprinze becomes [name]Tikva[/name], or Shaindel becomes [name]Yaffa[/name]. And it’s not hard to explain the connection between one name and another, if it’s based on meaning rather than purely on sound or initial
[name]Don[/name]'t know if that helps. But if it gives you a new way of doing things or approaching the problem…
Thanks, I appreciate your input. What would you do for Tzvi? Or what would be common where you are? It was my granddad’s Hebrew name.
If it was Yonatan I would go [name]Jonathan[/name] and put the whole matter to bed as it were. But Tzvi is a bit sticky. I guess the best direct translation would be [name]Hart[/name], for deer? He did use [name]Hirsch[/name] sometimes which is Yiddish and not Hebrew…? That is the old fashioned name I think I’m supposed to be getting away from though, lol! Confused!
We are probably going to keep Tzvi for home/religious use. We use direct translations if one is available (Yonatan to [name]Jonathan[/name] for example) but if there’s no translation it’s pretty typical in my family that you match the initial.
So like [name]Zvi[/name] could be [name]Zane[/name]/[name]Zachary[/name] and a X could be [name]Xavier[/name] and a T could be [name]Tyson[/name] or something. Probably not actually [name]Tyson[/name] I just can’t think of a T name at the moment. Does that make sense? So all the letters are basically as easy as each other as we’d pick pretty approachable names for each one.
I suppose the advantage of the disagreement is my sister and I can both name after the same granddad and I don’t think anyone will confuse little [name]Zachary[/name] and little [name]Tiberius[/name] or whatever.
I know a kid who converted, who was called [name]Sven[/name] for the first years of his life: he chose Tzvi as his Hebrew name because of the similar sound. I kind of like [name]Hart[/name] but [name]Hirsch[/name] or [name]Hershel[/name] isn’t really my style either. But where i come from no one would blink at Tzvi. I love it, but it’s my DH’s middle name so sort of out for our kids.
but [name]Hirsch[/name] or [name]Hershel[/name] isn’t really my style either. But where i come from no one would blink at Tzvi. I love it, but it’s my DH’s middle name so sort of out for our kids.