Questions about the meaning, source of Yiddish names

Question

A user has recently asked two questions (1, 2) about Yiddish names that have been closed as off-topic, with the specific close reason "Questions about the Hebrew language or about history or news of the Jewish people, Jewish individuals, or the State of Israel, except as related to Judaism, are off-topic." I saw one of these questions today in the reopen queue.

I don't fully understand the reason for these closures. Do the close-voters object to these questions because they are about Jews, and not Judaism? I don't think that would make sense, because there is certainly something about Jewish names that are on topic. Perusing that tag, I found a few questions about the meaning and history of names, like this one (admittedly about a Biblical personality, so it's on-topic for other reasons), this one (which also concerns a Biblical personality, but that fact was not known to the asker), among various others about tannaim and amoraim.

More importantly, there is a group of questions that ask specifically about the etymology of Yiddish names that have not been closed.

• Etymology of the Name Feivel
• What do the names Pesil, Pesa, and Pesha mean?
• Meaning of yiddish girls name "charnah"
• Yiddish Woman name - Malya

Are the questions about Zundel and Isser somehow different? I don't see how, but am open to explanation.

Answer 1

The meanings of names is a part of Judaism.

I think that these questions should be on topic on Mi Yodeya. Jewish names and their meanings, while they may also relate to Hebrew/Yiddish language and Jewish history (which is off topic), also have an aspect that is part of Judaism; for example, naming a baby or similar.

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Note: This does not mean that questions about names are exempt from whatever research requirements or quality guidelines that apply to all questions on the site. If you see a poorly asked question about name meanings, feel free to downvote it. But please keep in mind that a close vote is not a super downvote, so don't vote to close unless the question is actually closeable for one of the reasons in the close question menu.

Answer 2

I guess I have to agree with DoubleAA's answer that the etymology of a (Jewish) name is not intrinsically on-topic. However, giving a baby his Jewish name is an act of Judaism, so any question about that act is a question about Judaism. Arguably this includes questions about the frequency, geography, onset, or curtailment of the giving of a certain name, such as "Is Shprintza given as a girl's name in the North African communities?", "How old is the name Shprintza?", and "How common is the name Shprintza?" (the latter because it's equivalent to "How often do Jewish parents give the name Shprintza to their children?"). (I'm assuming that the Judaism aspect of the question would be stated or implicit, viz that the question is about people so named in Judaism namings and not in American legal namings.) (But not, as DoubleAA notes, etymology, unless, for example, the OP's stated reason is naming-related.)

Answer 3

The meaning of a name (or more precisely, the meaning of the etymological root of the name) is not itself part of Judaism, just like the meaning of any other word is not. A Jew's having a certain name doesn't make it part of Judaism (there are in all likelihood Jews nowadays named "Christian", and there have been Jews named "Antiginus", "Sumkus", and "Alexander"), nor does a name having an etymological root in Hebrew make it part of Judaism (consider "Jesus" or "Musa" or "Mayim").

Like any other word, asking about the meaning of a name as part of understanding a practice or text of Judaism is on topic, just like asking for help with a specific word in the bible or in the liturgy ("What does מלך mean?" is off topic, as is "What does the name מלך mean?", but "What does the fifth word in this blessing mean?" is on topic). In those cases we generally insist on having an explicit Judaism tie-in in the question, and this should be no different.