Jewish Names of Pets

Sarah Bunin Benor

Source / category

Examples

Personal name (incl. human or pet honoree)

Abby, Rachamim

Biblical or rabbinic literature

Akiva (Aramaic: ancient rabbi), Genesis (English: first book of the Torah)

Characteristic or circumstance

Gingy (Hebrew: red-head), Shmutzik (Yiddish: dirty)

Jewish-identified food

Bamba (Hebrew: Israeli snack food), Boreka (Ladino: savory filled pastry)

Animal name

Ketzel (Yiddish: kitty), Tuki (Hebrew: parrot)

Jewish religiosity

Mitzvah (Hebrew/Yiddish: good deed, commandment), Shtreimel (Yiddish: Hasidic fur hat)

Holiday/season of adoption

Afikomen (Hebrew/Greek: Passover ceremonial matzah bit), Latke (Yiddish: potato pancake)

Historical figure or current celebrity

Bar-Kochba (Aramaic: 2nd-century Jewish military leader), Bernie (English: Senator Sanders)

Term of endearment

Motek (Hebrew: sweety), Shayna Punim (Yiddish: pretty face)

Israel

Sababa (Hebrew: cool), Zelda (Hebrew: Israeli poet)

Literary or cultural reference

K’tonon (Hebrew: children’s book), Purrchik (Yiddish/English: Fiddler on the Roof character)

Credits

Sarah Bunin Benor, Jewish Names of Pets. Used with permission of the author.

Engage with this Source

In a 2019 survey of American Jews who have owned pets (Benor and Chandler 2020), about 35 percent report that one or more of their pets has had a name they consider Jewish. This chart is a categorization of the names they reported, with examples from several languages—English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and Ladino. These names demonstrate some things Jews value, including biblical and rabbinic texts, Jewish holidays, historical figures, cultural references, and food and language from pre-migration cultures.

Read more

Creator Bio

Sarah Bunin Benor

Sarah Bunin Benor, Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics at Hebrew Union College, received her PhD in linguistics from Stanford University in 2004. She has published and lectured widely about sociolinguistics, Jewish names, and Jewish languages, especially Jewish English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino. Her award-winning books include Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism (Rutgers University Press, 2012) and Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps (Rutgers University Press, 2020). Dr. Benor co-edits the Journal of Jewish Languages and directs the HUC Jewish Language Project, which features the Jewish Language Website, the Jewish English Lexicon, and the Heritage Words Podcast, which Dr. Benor hosts and produces.