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What’s in a Name?

May 11, 1978
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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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.

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