Under Jewish Ashkenazi principles, can you name your child after a living relative?

Question

And if you do, are there repercussions with the child?
How about if the relative is deceased - any difference?

Answer 1

There is an Ashkenazi superstition that naming a child after a living person will confuse the Angel of Death when it comes time for the older person to die. It is not, however, forbidden to do so. If you want to honor your grandmother but avoid the superstition, go with a name similar to hers (in meaning or in sound). It is VERY common for Ashkenazi Jews to name a child after a deceased relative.

Sephardic Jews do have a tradition of naming children after living relatives; this is even mentioned in the Talmud (Shabbat 134a).

Another solution is to honor your grandmother by naming the new baby after HER mother, or allowing your grandmother to choose the name.

Answer 2

I relatively have the two Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestry. people who responded right here that say the custom is that Ashkenazi do no longer call babies after residing relatives contributors are spectacular. Ashkenazi custom is to call a toddler after a respected relative who has kicked the bucket. people who responded right here that say Sephardic custom is to call the youngster after a respected residing relative are spectacular. i do no longer understand the custom for Mizrahi ( Jews whose ancestry under no circumstances left the middle East and North Africa) regardless of if i understand a pair of Mizrahi Jews who share the 1st names of residing relatives contributors ( a youthful female whose first call is that of her residing grandmother ) Zvi is likewise spectacular that some Sephardim ( distinctly people who went to stay between Ashkenazi ) later observed the Ashkenazi custom a minimum of in compromise as I relatively have relatives who had a popularity mixed from one Ashkenazi ancestor and one residing Sephardi relative. edit: there is not any valid reason at the back of any thumb all the way down to a factually spectacular answer as given by potential of Kevin 7, Zvi, allonyoav and myself. no person is looking yet another to love the customs..the question asked what the custom IS and we've given spectacular solutions.

Answer 3

I don't know about Ashkenazi rules specifically, but I know my mother has told me that Jews in general don't name children after living relatives. I'm named after my dead great-grandma, though. So's my brother.

Family descent: Eastern Europe, Germany.

Answer 4

Yes, no, and no.