[net.religion.jewish] What's in a Name

minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (11/15/84)

> > --
> > En j0diske kvinde der hedder "Maria"?  Det er da noget du tror!!
> 
> Jeg kende en finske kvinde som hedder Maria. Hvorfor skulle den j0diske vaere
> umulig?
> -- 
> 	Dr Memory
> 	...{amd,ucbvax,ihnp4}!qubix!jdb

The above apparently appeared in net.jokes -- I saw it referenced in net.lang.
It is written in Norwegian (or perhaps Danish) and translates as:

   "A Jewish woman named Maria [Mary]?  There's something, believe me!

   "I knew a Finnish woman named Maria.  Why should the Jewish [name]
   be impossible."

Funny you should mention that -- two of my cousins are named Martha
and Mary; they're both Jewish.

While I would find "Christine" an unusual name for a Jewish woman,
I wonder why Mary is considered so odd.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/16/84)

"Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in
a mildly assimilated environment; they named their three
children Basil, Queenie and Esme, all very Jewish names...)

Of course, the name Mary comes from the Hebrew name Miriam,
which is a very good Jewish name.

Dave Sherman
-- 
 { allegra cornell decvax ihnp4 linus utzoo }!utcsrgv!dave

stan@clyde.UUCP (Stan King) (11/17/84)

> From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
> "Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
> grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in
> a mildly assimilated environment; they named their three
> children Basil, Queenie and Esme, all very Jewish names...)
> 
> Of course, the name Mary comes from the Hebrew name Miriam,
> which is a very good Jewish name.

Golly gee, wasn't the name of Jesus's mama Mary or Maria or
whatever is in question here?  She would be considered Jewish, right?

-- 
		Stan King			phone: 201-386-7433
		Bell Labs, Whippany, NJ		Cornet:  8+232-7433
		room 2A-111			uucp:	 clyde!stan

guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) (11/27/84)

> > Of course, the name Mary comes from the Hebrew name Miriam,
> > which is a very good Jewish name.
> 
> Golly gee, wasn't the name of Jesus's mama Mary or Maria or
> whatever is in question here?  She would be considered Jewish, right?

Remember, Jesus' name wasn't Jesus, it was Joshua, so Mary's name may have
been Miriam.  (Sort of like the apocryphal story of the backwoods preacher
who said "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough
for me...")

(Posting routed to "net.nlang" from "net.lang"; "net.lang" is for computer
languages.)

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy

rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (11/28/84)

> > From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
> > "Mary" is not entirely unknown as a Jewish name; my late
> > grandmother's name was Mary (they lived in England, in . . .
> . . .
> Golly gee, wasn't the name of Jesus's mama Mary or Maria or
> whatever is in question here?  She would be considered Jewish, right?

Now wait a minute!  The programming language MARY was named by Mark Rain
(according to Mark, anyway) and, as far as I can tell, has no religious
leanings of any sort.  It has some unusual operators and interesting
coercions, though...

Uh, by the way, perhaps you guys wanted net.nlang instead of net.lang?

-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Reality?  Gad, that's worse than puberty!

rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams) (11/28/84)

           "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus
            it's good enough for me!"

Rather than a backwoods preacher, I believe it was the amazing
"Ma" Ferguson, governor of the State of Texas during the 20s,
who uttered those immortal words.
-- 
                               Rod Williams
                               dual!ptsfa!ptsfc!rjw

         "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"