has this question been asked before?

When choosing a Hebrew name, should you choose something that sounds good, like tall tree that is strong, or should you choose something that is meaningful, such as a name of a family member, or should you ask your rabbi to choose one?

quote:

Originally posted by Katja:
has this question been asked before?

When choosing a Hebrew name, should you choose something that sounds good, like tall tree that is strong, or should you choose something that is meaningful, such as a name of a family member, or should you ask your rabbi to choose one?

Yes, those are all good. Yet, if your main focus in chosing a name is the emunah to honor HaShem by recognizing that the name is meaningful to and for the person's existence you will find as it says in Mishle "...a good name is better than riches..."
When I named my son I looked for a name using the Tanakh. I searched for a name that would be close to the English name that his mother wanted to give him, I added a middle name because I wanted to honor the name of his grandfather, my dad who had passed when I was a child. I made a list of about seven names that were interesting in the way they sounded, I read the pasookim that contained those names to see the character of the person in Tanakh and the unique situation(s) that were part of the Tanakh's mentioning of that name. I then looked up the name in both a naming dictionary, and in a Hebrew standard dictionary, as well as the shoresh... the result was a vivid and overwhelming attachment to the naem based on how it would and could describe my hopes as a father for my son'e life and our future as a family. His Hebrew name is Chushai Daniel... Chucshai was David Hamelech's chaver during the revolt of Absalom... it has a very deep meaning that fits many aspects of our relationship and his personality, as well as it is now a source of real dignity because he is old enough to know what his name means... hope this helps... have a good search and may you find a "good name"... B"D"D...(Mishle 3:6)

We used both the principle of finding a dear relative for whom noone had yet been named, and finding a name related the current parsha, or a festival name.

When considering relatives when naming a girl, I had a great aunt who had a name more commonly associated with a man, and I couldn't do it.

Thanks Yehonaton & Rob, perhpas that is why we are allowed to choose two names, so we can find one that is meaningful to us from the torah and one that is close to us through our family.

My mom's name is Ruth, so I was thinking of using that for a daughter, but was not sure that it had meaning to me from the torah, but i could find another name that does and add it to Ruth. A second girl of course would have to be Veronica something...after my Grandmother and I have a daniel too; my grandfather...if i add a torah name to them...then i almost have a baseball team