Secular Names

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz

Real questions, submitted by actual OU Torah followers, with their real answers. NOTE: For questions of practical halacha, please consult your own rabbi for guidance.

Q. In this day and age of Jewish renewal and pride, why is it that so-called Orthodox rabbis still have to hide their Jewishness by using their secular names when writing moral and ethical articles in an Orthodox magazine? 

A. Thanks for your question. You seem to be working from the assumption that using a secular name is inappropriate but I can't say that I share that perspective. Consider: 

  • Moshe didn't use the name that Yocheved and Amram gave him (Avigdor), he used the name given him by his Egyptian adoptive mother; 
  • Mordechai is a name of Babylonian origin, it means a follower of the god Marduk (comparable in concept to the English name Christopher); 
  • People today would probably not use the name Yishmael but there are a number of people in the later books of Tanach with this name, plus the Talmudic Sage Rabbi Yishmael, whose name is mentioned every day in davening; 
  • It was ordained in the fourth century BCE that all baby boys for a year be named Alexander, for Alexander the Great, in gratitude for him sparing Jerusalem; 
  • Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud included Sumchos, Antigonos, Huna and others with secular names of their times and locales; 
  • One of the baalei Tosfos was named Rabbeinu Peter; 
  • The Rambam's father was Maimon, which is a secular name.
  • Other secular names that have become accepted in the Jewish community include Baila and Zalman. (See Iggros Moshe Even Ha'Ezer 3:35 for more on this topic.) 

There are other examples I could use. In short, having and using a Hebrew name may be admirable, even desirable, but it is not obligatory. People have - and have always had - many factors that play into the names they give their children or call themselves. It's a personal matter but I think that anyone who uses the title "rabbi" and writes in a Jewish magazine is not trying to hide their Jewishness. 



Rabbi Jack's latest book, Ask Rabbi Jack, is now available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.