Congratulations! It’s a boy! What’s his name? If he was born in Jerusalem in 2016, there’s a good chance that his name is David, since that was the most popular name for Jewish boys born in that year, during which 287 boys were named David. Unlike in Jerusalem, the most popular name for Jewish boys in all of Israel was Noam, with the name David ranked second place. Among Muslim boys in Israel the name Muhammad was the most popular, and it is also the most popular among all boys in Israel. The name Noam for a boy (it is also a girl’s name) was also the most popular name in several Israeli cities, such as Haifa, Beersheba and Rishon Lezion, while in Jerusalem the name Noam was in 16th place on the list of the most popular Jewish boys’ names. In Tel Aviv, the names Ori or Uri (which are spelled in exactly the same way in Hebrew) were the most popular.
The ten most popular names for Jewish boys in Jerusalem, apart from David, were Yosef (272 boys), Avraham (246), Moshe (233), Yehuda (212), Yisrael (210), Shmuel (184), Ya’acov (182), Yitzhak (162), and Haim (152). Apart from Noam and David, the most popular names in Israel for Jewish boys were Ori or Uri, Ariel and Yosef. In Tel Aviv the other popular boys’ names were Yonatan, Adam, Noam and Eitan. In Haifa, apart from the name Noam, the most popular names were Eitan, Daniel, Adam and David. In the large localities surrounding Jerusalem the most popular name for a boy in both Beit Shemesh and Betar Ilit was Avraham; Shmuel was the most popular name in Modi’in Ilit; Noam in Mevassert Zion; Eitan in Modi’in-Maccabim- Reut; and in Ma’ale Adumim Elia was the most popular name for a boy.
Translated by Gilah Kahn
