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Masculine names such as Daniel, Joseph, and Michael have feminized forms: Danielle/Daniela, Josephine/Josephina, Michelle/Michaela/Mikayla.

I've heard that when choosing a name for a baby, you would look up a particular Torah portion, depending on the baby's birthday.

But, on a more general note, what is the commonality of religious Jews feminizing masculine Biblical names if they have a baby girl? Obviously there is no prohibition against this (that I know of), but I have never heard of religious Jews feminizing common Biblical names which are originally masculine, although this is common among Christians: Josephine (Joseph) and Joanna (John). Do Jews ever do this?

Maybe it's just me, but I've never heard of there being a Josephina among religious Jews.
Why don't religious Jews ever feminize names?

Even if the Biblical character is male, you're naming the child after their characteristics, values, morals, etc,...

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    Related: mi.yodeya.com/q/17297
    – Isaac Moses
    Commented Sep 10, 2013 at 0:54
  • You are mistaken: (even religious) Jews do this all the time. Is that really the extent of the question?
    – Seth J
    Commented Sep 10, 2013 at 3:11

1 Answer 1

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The question is:

on a more general note, what is the commonality of religious Jews feminizing masculine Biblical names if they have a baby girl? Obviously there is no prohibition against this (that I know of), but I have never heard of religious Jews feminizing common Biblical names which are originally masculine, although this is common among Christians: Josephine (Joseph) and Joanna (John). Do Jews ever do this?

And, assuming they don't:

Why don't religious Jews ever feminize names?

Well, they do. I know a Yaakova and a Davida, and there are also people named Yosefa and so on. (As I've noted elsewhere, though, I've never heard of a Titzchak, Taakov, Mosha, or Emraham.)

I can't speak to "commonality", as sought. I don't think anyone has ever (in modern times) gathered statistics of baby names among religious Jews.

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  • My daughter is a "Davita". I still consider a feminization of David, even if I chose to spell it with a "t". In Hebrew, it keeps the two dalets and then looks more like David.
    – Mike
    Commented Nov 15, 2013 at 3:22
  • Note that Yaakova is itself a Biblical name. See Divrei HaYamim 1:4:36
    – Chaim
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 14:55

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