Naming Patterns of Recent Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel

Abstract

To identify patterns of first names over three generations, two samples of 100 Jewish families from the former Soviet Union were interviewed. The first sample came mainly from Ukraine and European Russia; the second from Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan. Both samples show that the traditional pattern of naming a child after a deceased relative remains strong although it is declining somewhat. Immigrants from European Russia tend to use a Russian name identified by the family and/or the Jewish community with a Hebrew name while those from Central Asia tend to use a Russian (or Farsi) name but one not identified with a Jewish name or a deceased relative.