New Post
Search
HelpRe: Atheists giving their kids Biblical names
in reply to a message by Laslow
No, it's not weird for non-religious people to give their kids names that are in the Bible. The Bible may still be part of your heritage even if you don't believe it is special in any way.
Certain Bible characters seem to have religious meaning, and not being religious myself, I wouldn't be comfy using names that could be interpreted by religious people as references to religion - at least, not when I don't have the religious education to know what any allusions might be. So there are names from the Bible I wouldn't use because I feel too ignorant of what they might mean to religious people. And I personally just don't get a feeling most Biblical names would be "right" for my family... almost all of us have names of Latin, Greek, or Germanic origin; the few Christian names - Joseph (a middle name) and Daniel are the only 2 I know of in the last 3 generations on my side - stand out to me in my family. If we mostly had names like John and Mark and Sarah and Ruth, I would probably barely distinguish between Bible names and other names.
But if other people use Biblical names, I don't assume they are used for religious meaning. They're mostly just names to me (there are a few less frequent ones that strike me as archaic and therefore more Bible-specific and probably religious). The reasons I personally wouldn't use Hebrew names from the Bible, apply only to myself.
- mirfak
Certain Bible characters seem to have religious meaning, and not being religious myself, I wouldn't be comfy using names that could be interpreted by religious people as references to religion - at least, not when I don't have the religious education to know what any allusions might be. So there are names from the Bible I wouldn't use because I feel too ignorant of what they might mean to religious people. And I personally just don't get a feeling most Biblical names would be "right" for my family... almost all of us have names of Latin, Greek, or Germanic origin; the few Christian names - Joseph (a middle name) and Daniel are the only 2 I know of in the last 3 generations on my side - stand out to me in my family. If we mostly had names like John and Mark and Sarah and Ruth, I would probably barely distinguish between Bible names and other names.
But if other people use Biblical names, I don't assume they are used for religious meaning. They're mostly just names to me (there are a few less frequent ones that strike me as archaic and therefore more Bible-specific and probably religious). The reasons I personally wouldn't use Hebrew names from the Bible, apply only to myself.
- mirfak
This message was edited 9/23/2016, 9:45 AM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1