Jewish Baby Names 2026

Hebrew names, custom and meaning

Jewish naming carries a structure that many other traditions do not. A child receives a Hebrew name used in religious contexts — at a bris or baby naming, when called to the Torah, on a ketubah — which may or may not be the name used day to day. Plenty of families choose one name that serves both; plenty of others pair an English name with a Hebrew one that shares a sound or a meaning.

The best-known custom is naming for a relative. Ashkenazi families traditionally name after a relative who has died, as an act of memory; Sephardi and Mizrahi families more often name after living grandparents, as an honour. These are genuinely opposite conventions, and families with both backgrounds usually negotiate a compromise — often by matching the initial letter rather than the whole name.

The names themselves fall into a few groups. Biblical names (David, Miriam, Asher, Naomi) have been in continuous use for thousands of years. Nature and abstract nouns are common: Talia is dew, Ilan is a tree, Shira is song. And a large, distinctly modern group emerged with the revival of spoken Hebrew in the 20th century — Lior ('my light'), Liron, Ori, Amit — built as short possessive phrases rather than inherited from scripture. These modern names are now among the most popular in Israel and are increasingly used in diaspora communities.

One point of confusion worth clearing up: many Hebrew names have English forms that look unrelated. Eitan is Ethan, Yaakov is Jacob, Yosef is Joseph, Rivka is Rebecca, Chaya is often anglicised to Eve. Choosing the Hebrew spelling rather than the English one is not a different name — it is the same name in its original language, and increasingly the choice younger parents are making.