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I have noticed that the name Devora(h) is many times spelled with an H and many times without one.
I believe with names such as Malka, Ahuva… it is typically without an H.
Is this true? Why is it so? Do you know anyone who spells these names with an H?
Any clarification on this issue would be appreciated.
Interesting post because on Friday I was shopping and noticed that the cashier’s name tag said “Hadassa”. I said to her that my cousin has the same name. She immediately asked me if it was with or without an “H” at the end. I told her it was with. She said that my cousin must be Jewish. I said yes and she told me that her name – Haddassa, without the final “H” – was, of all things, an Irish name. I was surprised to say the least. I have never heard of anyone who wasn’t Jewish having this name, nor I have I ever seen it spelled without the final “H”.
If it ends with a “hay” in Hebrew, it should have an “h” in the English, as h corresponds to hay.
I always thought it was just a personal preference. I’ve seen Devorah spelled many ways (Devorah, Devora, Dvorah, Dvora). The same goes for Tzipporah and Tzippora, Rivka, Rivkah…For me, personally, the lack of the “h” in Devorah feels like something is missing.
Abe Cohen, usually that’s the case, but with the name Sara some people spell it as Sarah or Sara.
so then why isn’t malka spelled with an h?
i have a similar q: why is Avigail/Avigayil sometimes spelled w/ the ‘y’ and s/t’s not? which is correct?
There is no “correct” or “incorrect” way to transliterate Hebrew to English. There are no formal rules.
I think there is no correct spelling for a name. Everyone spells their names differently. Guys do, too, (Moishi vs. Moishie, David vs. Dovid). That goes for last names as well (Weiss vs. Weisz…). Even secular names have different ways to be spelled. Personal preference.
In Lashon Kodesh this would be a legitimate question as to whether the name was ??? or not; there’s no such concept in English. Anything goes.
Avigail is more anglicized and closer to the English “Abigail”, which is my daughter’s name on her birth certificate. Her Hebrew name is Avigayil – of course, we just call her Abbi.
MG: funny you mention the english name “abigail”. my friend spells it sans the Y and was flying a few weeks after the unmentionable’s bomber. her ID said abigail but her ticket said avigail. the TSA agent called over her Sup who said it was fine, its just a typo! (B and V are neighbors on the keyboard B”H)
I use a particular “official” English transliteration for my name, which has a ches, because when anyone who reads Russian and English reads it that way, they know exactly how to transliterate it into the Cyrillic alphabet. They also know how to pronounce it because Russian has a ches sound. However, I use a very “haimish” transliteration when I sign off on emails to friends.
A travel agent in Moscow before the days of computer-printed tickets wrote me a ticket for El Al and mangled my surname in the official reservation records (which were computerized) by back-transliterating it from Cyrillic. That meant my surname on the ticket did not match the correct one on my passport. Fortunately I had a connection at the airport who vouched for me with El Al security.
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