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Does anyone know how many "kosher" names are there in the Torah (jewish/hebrew)? And how many female names (including the talmud)? Any very rough estimate would be more than fine - we're excluding names like amal_ek or anything that wouldn't fit a healthy kosher baby B'H.

The reason for asking is quite simple (and funny): Me and my beloved wife were having a discussion about how easy it was to decide a male boy name and how hard (!) it is picking a female one ("oh we already know a girl with that name" for every single name). And then we wondered ourselves: oy vey, there must be more male name options than female!! We have no more relatives of blessed memory to honor so we're free to pick any.

Wish you all a Joyful shabbes! Jacob

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    here is a partial list of male names headcoverings-by-devorah.com/NamesMenTorah.htm and here is a list of mixed names but on a non-Jewish website (so beware) gloryknowledge.com/eyesalve/writings-of-wisdom/…
    – rosends
    Commented Mar 1 at 14:00
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    A good source for names is שמות אנשים and שמות נשים, in Shulchan Aruch Even Haezer following Siman 129 (beta.hebrewbooks.org/tursa.aspx?a=eh_x8161 and following pages).
    – Meir
    Commented Mar 1 at 15:04
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    Are you specifically seeking words used as names in Tanakh? Because there are also plenty of names which are in Tanakh but not as names (eg. חיים male, or טובה female)
    – Double AA
    Commented Mar 1 at 16:31
  • @DoubleAA wow that's a great point, we didn't even think of that, interesting! We're very inclined on picking a strong female name, something with a very strong jewish identity - anyone would know it's a jewish name with zero doubt just by hearing it - your suggestions (names that are not "names") fits it as well, thank you. Commented Mar 1 at 17:37
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    And - I forgot - mazel tov!
    – Meir
    Commented Mar 1 at 18:32

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With a big caveat (as you indicated re: Amalek) that not all names found in Tanach and Shas are necessarily appropriate for baby naming. It would be hard to imagine naming a boy בלעם or a girl איזבל in good conscience (although wouldn't be surprised if it's been done)!

Tanach

While some names are used by more than one person, for sheer numbers I have counted over 1600 named male individuals in Tanach and over 125 named females.

There is an excellent comprehensive and indexed name list here (in Hebrew) with name explanations.

There's also a very good list of male names here and female names here and I actually used this for much of the person data in my site's 3D Tanach Family Tree feature. If you're into genealogy, they even have a GEDCOM formatted file with family tree info included for download here.

In Mandelkern's Concordance of the Tanach there's a section at the end with a listing of named items (people, nations, places, H's name). While this is not limited to person names, it's also a valuable resource for this discussion.

If you want to actually search for any mentions of male and/or female names in Tanach you can do the following on my aforementioned site: enter image description here 1) select a letter-based search from the search settings panel on the right

2) enter an asterisk as a wildcard to search for any word

3) select Advanced search from the control to the right of the search bar

4) select the Parts of Speech++ tab

5) select one or two name settings from the Objects list (can be MAN and/or WOMAN)

6) click the search button on the left side of the search bar

7) see the search results (in this case for woman name) with the names highlighted in red for each pasuk where they occur.

Shas

A comprehensive list of male and female names in Shas can be found in תולדות תנאים ואמוראים, אהרן הימן, תר"ע and much of it has been digitized and indexed here.

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  • Not only does it answer our question, but it also gives us resources to check it ourselves and helps in our search for the baby's name. Thank you so much for your effort and time. Best wishes. Commented Mar 1 at 17:42
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    You're welcome - have a great Shabbos!
    – EraserX
    Commented Mar 1 at 17:50

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