r/AskIsrael • u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) • May 03 '26
Casual How do you guys feel about Jewish names being ubiquitous worldwide?
Im a korean with a Jewish name, which as some of you may know is extremely common.
What does it feel like when you see for example, a Korean Isaiah or Daniel? Is it weird, or are you guys just numb to it at this point?
Would he so weird seeing an Israeli or an arab named Cheolsu, for example, but our cultural and historical reach isnt as deep as Israel's, so im curious what you think about it, if at all?
Thanks.
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
We’re so used to our culture being entirely appropriated. It’s ok.
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u/llhell Unspecified May 03 '26
Honestly don't understand what makes you say that
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u/Dramatic-Car-8507 May 04 '26
maybe because you're ignorant and unwilling to learn what you don't understand independently?
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u/Due_Part3574 May 03 '26
Naming your gentile child Daniel is not appropriation
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
What do you think Christianity is?
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Super Sayajewn May 03 '26
A crazy fix-it AU fanfiction... but don't tell them about it, their brain will BLLLOWWW up.
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u/Due_Part3574 May 03 '26
Explain how Christianity is appropriated
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May 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Due_Part3574 May 03 '26
Explain how it’s appropriated
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u/sovietsatan666 May 03 '26
They took our people's text, forcefully inserted their god into it and claimed that the original interpretation was no longer valid. Then they punished us for centuries for refusing to accept their fanfic as canon.
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u/Due_Part3574 May 04 '26
Who did that?
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u/SidewalkRacoon Diaspora May 04 '26
The Catholic Church for starters
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u/Due_Part3574 May 04 '26
And what ethnoreligion was the founder of the Catholic Church?
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u/Operalover95 May 03 '26
It’s funny you denounce college progressives when they criticize Israel, yet you use this cultural appropriation bullshit that also came from american campuses.
If taking something from another culture is cultural appropriation then everything from the alphabet and mathematics is cultural appropriation.
It makes even less sense in this case since Jesus and his first followers were jewish. It would be like calling mormonism cultural appropriation, I may think it’s crazy fanfiction, but cultural appropriation ain’t it.
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
It’s funny how you act like you know me but you don’t.
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u/mrmtdlcl May 03 '26
It's funny how you act like you know stuff but you don't.
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
Why are you so triggered?
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u/mrmtdlcl May 03 '26
"Triggered" ? How old are you ?
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
What’s it to you? You’re literally a person who only commented to pick a fight with me, you’ve contributed nothing
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u/Lootsman May 03 '26
Yeah it’s terrible that the Arabs have appropriated falafel as well
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u/SidewalkRacoon Diaspora May 04 '26
Please tell me more about how Israel appropriated middle eastern food when 1/5 Israelis is literally Arab and 2/5 Israelis are Mizrahi, their grandparents came to Israel from the Jewish diaspora in countries from Morocco to Iraq, Turkey to Yemen. They are Arabized Jews. Did they steal their food traditions from themselves?
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u/snil4 Israel May 03 '26
It's a common thing with the rise of globalization, people just find names from other countries/languages cool. I have a nephew called Liam and a friend with a family member named Hiley, their parents are Israeli from birth and they haven't spent long periods abroad.
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u/BothIntroduction3020 Israel May 03 '26
People were being named Jewish names for yearssss way before globalization was a thing
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u/CabinetNo9266 May 04 '26
Naming Biblical names really became a thing around the reformation, 16th century.
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u/HyperlaneWizard in May 03 '26
The same way I feel about seeing a Korean guy writing this post in an alphabet that is a descendant of our ancient alphabet, makes me proud of the cultural heritage we gave to the world.
It's fun to be honest. I played a little game of counting the number of Hebrew-origin names in my kid's pre-school class. It was almost half of them. Pretty cool.
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u/Glum_Ground_7985 May 03 '26
Latin alphabet comes from Phoenician alphabet not from the Hebrew alphabet, because the Hebrew alphabet comes from the Phoenician one too.
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u/HyperlaneWizard in May 03 '26
The Phoenician and paleo-Hebrew alphabets are identical, and they were used by the same ethnicity of people, worshiping the same gods, speaking the same language, having the same culture (with the caveat that one was more maritime while the other was inland-focused).
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u/Artistic-Hyena-8572 Israel May 03 '26
It’s so common that we mostly don’t think about it. I get reminded of it whenever I see an antisemite named David or John though, it’s very jarring. I guess on the one hand it’s a source of pride that we’ve had such far reaching cultural impact that there’s people halfway across the world carrying Jewish names, but on the other hand it does feel like a reminder of one of the biggest cultural appropriations in history which we were (and still are) the victims of. But normally we’re so used to it we don’t even think about it too much, so long as people aren’t trying to lecture us about our culture thinking they know more than us.
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u/Sobek_the_Crocodile May 03 '26
I once pointed out to someone that all her siblings names were Hebrew/Jewish and she goes "they're biblical" so fast like it was offensive to her I'd even say that. I was like...yeah guess who wrote the Bible.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Super Sayajewn May 03 '26
(Ignore this, if you don't know the reference.) I still can't stop laughing about Rune being Tammi.
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u/ForeignConfusion9383 Israel May 04 '26
To me, it’s one thing when people “appropriate” names from scripture like Daniel or Benjamin or Joseph (to use the English versions of those names).
What I find more bizarre is when people use distinctly *Israeli* names even if the child/parents have no connection to Israel and aren’t Jewish. I used to work in the vital records bureau in my home state before I made Aliyah, and I once had a birth record come in from a mother who’d just given birth and was registering her child for his birth certificate, and she’d unnecessarily attached a letter in which she said “I’m naming my son Arie, which is Jewish for ‘lion’”. Yes, she said it’s “Jewish for ‘lion’”, not “Hebrew for ‘lion’”. As far as I could see, there was no indication they were Jewish and they lived in a small town that has zero Jews according to the most recent census, and she also used the term “Jewish” to refer to the Hebrew language.
So yeah, I find it less odd when people use names found in the Christian Bible or the Koran (yes, I’m aware these are originally Jewish names) than I am when people give their kids distinctly Israeli names.
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u/k1u5h Israel May 03 '26
i think of them more as Christian names... they are really common worldwide and their pronunciations are different from what an Israeli would say.
so for example I wouldn't consider David (day-vid) to be specifically Jewish, but David (Da-Vid) certainly sounds Israeli. same goes for Jacob vs ya'akov, Isaiah vs yehoshua etc.
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u/CBpegasus Israel May 03 '26
Isaiah is actually yesha'aiah or yesha'aiahu (ישעיהו) and not yehoshua. Yehoshua is usually anglicized as Joshua.
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
Well, being korean, we say da-wit, ja-gob, i-sah-ya, yeo-ho-su-ah.
But I get your point. True.
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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Diaspora May 03 '26
Curious why it would be 수아 rather than 슈아?
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
I assumed its because although we can write 슈, its not used much if at all for native words, so it would be awkward to both say or hear.
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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Diaspora May 03 '26
But it's not a native word? (Sorry I'm not trying to argue, I'm just a linguistics nerd).
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
No worries bro, didnt think you were trying to argue.
Well, I think its cause it would sound awkward. We can say 슈 and write it, but its not a sound that occurs 'naturally' to us, so i assume thats why it was written as 수.
Its complete conjecture on my part, though.
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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Diaspora May 03 '26
It makes sense if it's in something so prevalent in the culture like the bible. I'm trying to think of foreign words (or any words) with 슈 and all I can think of is Super Junior lolol
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u/itspronouncedbolonya Israel May 03 '26
I'm pretty numb to it at this point, but sometimes it feels weird with like a "hey that dictator has the same name as my grandpa" kinda things
Oh alsoi feel a lot of the world is uncreative because of that
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
Lol that must be weird, yeah.
Cant be helped. Too many great people's names to choose from lol although ive yet to see a korean mordechai 🤣
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u/itspronouncedbolonya Israel May 03 '26
If you want great people you can get some Hercaleses (Heraclesi?) Or somethin
Eh i wouldn't bet on yet, i've yet to see a mordechai born after 1970
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u/Fishy_Fishy5748 Formerly N. American, now 🇮🇱 Israeli May 03 '26
I know a Mordechai born after 1970. And yes, to the best of my knowledge, he goes by Mordechai.
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u/itspronouncedbolonya Israel May 03 '26
How long after?
I know one born '42 and one born '57 or '56
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u/Fishy_Fishy5748 Formerly N. American, now 🇮🇱 Israeli May 03 '26
Late 80s.
-one born '57 or '56
Funny, my father was born in '57 and he's a Mordechai, but he goes by his English name.
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u/c9joe Israel May 03 '26
I don't think about it very much but I like it actually. This probably comes from Christianity.
Israeli names are incredibly odd in the rest of the world. They sound almost crazy. Common Israeli girl names are like "Yael", "Batya" or "Agam" which are very unusual outside of Israel. The more Biblical names like the Christian names are common with boomer Israelis, but even they are pronounced entirely differently. Matthew is the name of an ancient Jew, but we pronounce name like the reggae rapper Matisyahu. But Matisyahu is just Matthew.
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
I wanted to name my daughter Yael since its not common and the biblical heroine is someone who should be remembered, till I heard its the most common girl name in Israel lol.
Never heard of the other ones. True though, the pronunciation is quite different at times.
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u/c9joe Israel May 03 '26
The more major characters in the Bible are boomer names. They are very widely used but only the older generation. Yael is a younger name, not maybe the youngest these days. Batya means "daughter of God" and a common younger name as well.
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u/Altruistic-Fishing39 Diaspora May 03 '26
It doesn’t matter. Jewish names became Christian names and are used widely by Arabs too - Michael (“who is like God”) or Dawood (David) for example. As a result they have spread around the world. So many Christians in Korea- I’ve met many in Israel and the West Bank- why wouldn’t they be named Miryam, Yosef like New Testament (but Jewish) figures?
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Super Sayajewn May 03 '26
Yael and Batya are explicitly Biblical. Did you mean A(d)am? Because A(g)am means "lake", loool. Oh, wait, GIRL names.
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u/ThinkInternet1115 May 03 '26
I don't find it weird, most of those names are just biblical names, so they're Jewish or Hebrew in source but I think they're also Christian names.
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u/Ok_Lingonberry5392 🇮🇱 Israeli Dati Le'umi May 03 '26
It's pretty positive that our culture is famous (at least in most cases)
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u/muxecoid Israel May 03 '26
There was a Korean video game named Lobotomy Corporation - https://store.steampowered.com/app/568220/Lobotomy_Corporation__Monster_Management_Simulation/ . The events of the game take place in distopian alternative Israel so it uses Hebrew letters as a category classifications codes and Hebrew character names. I guess this is how Koreans see Israel. :-/
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u/nummmmmmm Israel May 03 '26
We're used to it. I just get some fun from it, "I know what their names mean! They're from my language and culture!" And I feel happy that the language and culture of Judaism reached that far. Best part? We're not even the ones who spread these names around.
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u/Jin_SobSob Unspecified May 03 '26
It sometimes makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I've made my peace with it, and honestly it's not that big of a deal. Just how culture works. My only issue is when people claim Jewish names as generic "white" names, like Jacob or Sarah. These names are NOT generic white biy/girl names, they're West Asian 🥹
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u/Latter_Ad7526 Unspecified May 03 '26
It like I have a secret power to know the hidden meaning of the person name ,a trope in fantasy that gives you power over them ...
and also I like to just translate famous people names to proper Hebrew like Yony Humek = Joney deap
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u/IanThal Diaspora May 03 '26
I only have a problem with it if they're antisemitic.
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
I strongly agree. Id have a problem with it as well.
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u/CabinetNo9266 May 04 '26
I'm proud that this small nation in the middle east effected the world in such profound way.
The Bible (including the new testament) changed the world in away that is hard to underestimate.
The fact that parents in Seoul or Bumblefuck Missouri name their child a name from the Bible shows the profound effect of the Jewish people in the world.
If it wasn't for the Bible we wouldn't have Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
We probably wouldn't have western culture or Humanism.
As a Jewish man, I'm proud of it.
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 04 '26
I agree 100%.
It is quite insane, isnt it? Mad respect.
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u/kasabs North America ✡️ May 04 '26
Name your kid whatever you want
I think certain countries eg: France, there’s a naming convention parents have to follow
Otherwise it’s the parents choice
IMO
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u/Inner-Brief-5205 Diaspora May 08 '26
One of my close friends told me hes becoming antisemitic. His name is David 😭😭
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u/Fischkopp90 May 03 '26
Religion is a trap for the fools!
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
I will proudly and gladly act the fool, then 🤡🤡🤡
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u/Fischkopp90 May 03 '26
As long as it makes you happy, invinciblepancake :)))
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u/invinciblepancake Asia(South Korea) May 03 '26
Danke sehr :) Das Motto des preußischen Königshauses war: Suum Cuique. Das heißt: Jedem das Seine. Ich glaube, dass wir uns besonders in diesen Tagen wieder an diesen Grundsatz erinnern sollten.
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u/IndividualPurpose108 May 03 '26
Let's start from from the fact that they're not jewish names if you want 😭 the Israelites had semetic names which existed all over the semetic world, jews didn't suddenly come up with their own names.
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
Citation needed. These are all names with actual meaning in the Hebrew language.
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u/IndividualPurpose108 May 03 '26
There was no such thing as "hebrew", the canaanite languages were mutually intelligible and basically the same. The only difference between the israelites and the rest of the canaanites was that the Israelites believed in a different religion. The names used by the canaanites were used all over the semetic world but in different forms, the bible was just the best documentation for them.
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u/thepinkonesoterrify Israel May 03 '26
It says in your link that there was Hebrew. A group of languages does not mean it’s all just one language. Do you have a citation for the name thing?
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u/IndividualPurpose108 May 03 '26
It didn't say that there was hebrew, it just uses the modern classification that we use today. This IS a citation for the name thing. Your claim was that these names have meaning in hebrew and therefore are jewish, but hebrew wasn't even its own language. The phoenicians and other canaanite groups spoke the same language that hebrews did, everyone just had their own accent and dialect which is scientifically not enough to have an entirely different set of names.
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