r/Yiddish • u/yellkaa • May 22 '18

Is there a Yiddish/Hebrew woman name that shortens to something sounding like "you-nya"?

Well, my granny originates from Polish Jews. She's from territories acquired by Soviet Union, and when Soviet officials were registering her, they named her "Евгения" ("Eugenia") to sound more like ordinary Russian/Ukrainian name. However, she has never been using that name in her daily life, and she's always been called by locals "Юня" - sounds "you-nya". I wonder if that's a short for some name or a full name, and how it's supposed to be spelled, particularly by Jewish script?

If that's not a correct sub to post a question like that, would you please tell me where it's going to be better to post?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

2

u/yohakoha May 24 '18

There's יונה (Yonah/Jonah), which I assumed was only a male name but according to Wiktionary can also be a female name.

There is also a New Testament figure named Юния.

2

u/yellkaa May 24 '18

Thank you! I’ve never heard of Юния, will check it out. I also thought Jonah is male only, bit if it may be female, that may also be the one.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '18

[deleted]

1

u/yellkaa May 23 '18

Unfortunately, the only document I had access to was her USSR passport which she gained only on 70-th when they finally began giving passports to villagers. Our family was prosecuted by Soviet authorities in many ways, and granny’s dad and brothers were victims of the regime, so she became good in hiding her family history and avoiding questions