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Giving more than one name

What do you think about giving a child more than one name ? I heard that many people do not use more than one name unless they are going to use both of them. I'm not sure what the source and reason is for that.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by LisaBRM on October 19, 2009 at 12:08pm

I've never heard that. We're actually giving our baby due in December 3 names because we have 3 special people we want to name for and this may be our only child.

Permalink Reply by Rachel Allen on November 18, 2009 at 3:55pm

my husband heard that too, so we named two names and we use both... but for our next child/ren, there are people we want to name after that i dont love the names, so i want to name two names and only use the one we pick/make up. i guess we'll fight that battle when it comes.

The reason is because a name (at least a jewish one) has a spiritual essence. They say a parent has a type of ruach hakodesh (like prophetic vision) when they name a child, because they are labeling what the childs essence is/ what their personality will be. Also by using the childs proper, full name, you are speaking to their soul. So really i guess you should call the child by the name(s) they are given. My husband said this also applies to not using nicknames. I cant quote you sources, but i've heard this from a number of people.

Permalink Reply by Rachel Boussidan on February 5, 2011 at 10:37pm

Hey Lisa, how did you call your baby ?

I also heard that Ich Ben Ezra said that you shouldn't give more than one name to a baby because a name for the Jews comes with a mazal and if you give more than one name the baby ends having too many mazals and can not really realize himself.

BUT if you do use more than one name, it is very important that you call the baby with all his name to give the baby his full potential