Somebody asked an interesting question on the "Ask the Rabbi" service of Kipa.
The question asked was that they are about to give birth and are considering a combination of names. They would like to name the baby "Ariel Sharon" - "Ariel" after a dead grandfather, and "Sharon" after the wife's dead father. The problem is that the name "Ariel Sharon" was the name of a prime minister who did the despicable deed of expelling Jews from their homes.
They asked if they can ignore that, if they should do it, if not?
Rav Baruch Efrati answered the question by saying that as long as their intention when naming the baby is after specific people, or the meanings of the words (Ariel is a name of the beis hamikdash and Sharon is a region in Israel), and not of the former prime minister, it is technically ok, because Ariel Sharon the former prime minister committed a terrible sin by expelling Jews, though he is a Jew and also has many merits in his favor..
Rav Efrati said you can give the name "Ariel Sharon", just don't have the former PM in mind when doing so.
And an additional factor to take into consideration, Rav Efrati added, is that with this name children will laugh at the kid as he grows up, as the name is unusual and is the same as that of a famous politician. It might not be such a problem, as he will likely go by only "Ariel" on a daily basis, but it should be taken into consideration.
Reminds me of the story in Chelm where the father wanted to name the child for his father and the mother wanted to name after her father. Both had the name of Yaakov. The problem was that one Yaakov (mohter's side) was a scholar and the other, a horse thief.
ReplyDeleteThey went to the Rov who said that they should name the child Yaakov. If he grows up to be a scholar, we'll know he was named after the mother's father, if he becomes a horse thief, we'll know he was named after the father.
I grew up with a kid whose parents - last name Hill - named him Bunker. (No they weren't Jewish.) The funny thing was that his classmates never got the joke, from kindergarten we just thought Bunker was an ordinary name. Even when a sub teacher in 8th made a big joke of it, we still didn't see the name objectively.
ReplyDeleteI think it's silly that this was a shaila in the first place. Think for yourself! Name your kid whatever you want.
ReplyDeleteBut do you want to do that to your kid? He'll get an Aliyah and people will hear his name and not know the real reason, they'll hear Ariel Sharon. Poor kid. Like the family named Fish who named their daughter Golda. Just not fair to do that to a kid. BTW, it's a good idea, especially for a boy to pay attention to initials too. I know a guy whose last name starts with the letter tet. His first names start with shin and yud. I used to see his initials everyday on his tefillin bag.
Wanna Saab - I know a guy whose last name starts with the letter tet. His first names start with shin and yud. I used to see his initials everyday on his tefillin bag.
ReplyDeleteDid everyone joke around that he was a sailor? :-)
One of my cousins decided to name her son Levanon.
ReplyDeleteThey named him after a name for the Bet Hamikdash.
But still... (and yes, they live in Israel).
Why couldn't they call the kid Sharon Ariel??
ReplyDelete