Israeli parents are constantly searching for new, fashionable names for their children. Yet a survey conducted in the army of popular names of soldiers revealed that the majority of the parents stick to old, Biblical names. Among the male soldiers the most frequent name is Joseph (4428), followed by David (4140), Moshe (4069) and Avraham (4052). In descending order of frequency are Yaacob, Yitzhak, Chaim, Shlomo, Eliyahu, Mordechai, Shimon, Michel and Aryeh. Among the female soldiers the leading name is Rina (1378), which is well ahead of the runnersup–Rachel (903) and Esther (849). Other popular names are, in order, Sara, Ilana, Miriam, Ruth and Hanna.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
