On Hebrew Names In My Family (A Musing That Became Too Long For Facebook)

One aspect of life for certain: if I don’t know what someone’s Hebrew name is or would’ve been, I go to find out; and in at least some cases, I try to stick to the literal meaning (In my case, I took “Maratovah” as my Hebrew middle name on purpose partly because my first name in both Hebrew and English is already ironic enough in many aspects). One name I absolutely couldn’t justify assigning (“Kayin” is a “lo-lo”); and I stuck with a name that both worked and had already been in our family, anyway. Luckily, Great-Granddad Czarnecki (ע״ה וז״ל) had or would’ve had essentially a duplicate name: Chananyah Yochanan for “Anthony John”. Some could argue “Yosef Yochanan”, although Great-Great-Grandma (ע״ה וז״ל) never used the same first names for siblings. Besides, Josefeh (Joseph)-Susi Paschal (“Peter”) was born in 1917. 

Susi had a complicated relationship with his Yiddishkeit; and one of our cousins was Pesach Yosef “Paschal Joseph” Danilowicz (ז״ל). So, I knew exactly what Susi was doing (Besides, one of his brothers was already “Stanley Peter”, ז״ל, by secular name). Jankie (“John Raymond”/“John Francis”/“John Felix”) pulled similarly (Both Susi and Jankie were actually kapos in many respects; and I don’t say that lightly). Their mother would’ve been unamused, and she probably would’ve been horrified to know that her namesake daughter (as we are Sefardi and Ashkenazi Jews) changed her name to “Alexandria Julia (Asenat Yehudit)” to honor her father (Yehudah “Julian”/“Ludwik Zernetzky/Czerniecki, ע״ה וז״ל) after both of her parents died and when she applied for a marriage license. Great-Grandaunt Asenat (ז״ל) also stepped up to take care of her brother Binyamin Shmarya “Bernard Stanley” (ז״ל וה״י״ד) after he endured a lobotomy due to Schizophrenia and CPTSD. She also took care of her minor siblings after they were fully orphaned (The other siblings were either of age, deceased, or only God knows where—as one sibling was conceived in trauma before  Great-Great-Grandma and Great-Granddad could immigrate to the United States.).

PS I’m not monetizing this. לשבת שלום, and the moon for Tishri 5786 will likely be cited tomorrow (cf. Hebrew In Israel and Deborah’s Date Tree. Also cf. Shemot-Exodus 12:2, e.g.).