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Tamara ('cause I'm female)....thanks for naming me after a prostitute mom.

Tamar, the "sacred prostitute." She married a man who died before she got pregnant, so the law at the time dictated she marry his brother to conceive a child. But he was a bad man and didn't want to give her a child that would technically belong to his dead brother so he used the withdrawal method (lol) to prevent it. So G-d killed him. I think she married another brother, who also died. The father of the boys, having only one son left and not wanting him to die as well, refused to let her marry him.
Tamar dressed as a prostitute and propositioned her father in law, getting pregnant by him. Instead of payment she said, "give me your cane and cloak (or something) until you can send me animals." So he did and couldn't find her again to actually pay her.
Eventually, he found out his unmarried daughter-in-law (ish) was pregnant and accused her of being a whore. She was going to be burnt at the stake for this, unless she would tell the men who the father was. She refused, but sent for the cloak and cane of the father, which she still had. Her father-in-law saw it, realized she did right and all was forgiven.
The rabbis are actually very kind to Tamar when they go over the story, but she's still called a "sacred prostitute." And when I told my driving instructor my name was Tamara, she said, "Oh, like that bad woman in the bible? The one that danced for all the men?"

It means palm tree, or sweet date or some combination of the two. It wasn't until I was reading a book about Jewish women that I learned the awful, awful truth. Kay, maybe it isn't so bad, but still. A prostitute. Was that necessary?

hey, flowers are a good meaning 3nodding


And as for Tamara, it's really not that bad; it's not as though you're a prostitute yourself or anything, and people shouldn't assume you are a certain way because of your name 3nodding

For example, to me, Cynthia sounds like some annoying old lady who sat on a porch knitting in like the middle of the Civil War or something. xp Cindy=so much better biggrin 3nodding

My name is Leah and my hebrew name is Chava. I was named after my bubby ^^

My hebrew name is Shayna Tova, but the Shayna part was originally yiddish.

but leah is a hebrew name sweatdrop ....

My middle name in hebrew is Kaneet, which is hebrew for some sort of small, tropical bird. Like a finch. Or a canary. It's spelled the same way as the transliteration of "Keneth"

apparently neutral

i don't like this whole jewish/hebrew/english name business. poeple should have one name and that's it. why should you have a different name just because you live in a different country? i mean, you see names like "laqisha", so why not "yocheved"?

i'm yonatan benyamin. that's what it says on my birth certificate. that's who i am.