Most Popular Names in Israel

Todd is not a good Israeli name. They usually think I’m saying “Tal” or “Ted.” My colleague Bill had problems with people understanding his name in Israel until the prominence of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. I don’t see any famous Todds on the horizon to solve my problem. If you think your kids might live in Israel, here are some names that will fit right in.

Uri, Noam, Itai, Ido and David were the most popular given boy’s names in 2005, while Noa, Shira, Agam, Maya and Tamar topped the charts for girls.

The next most popular girl’s names last year were Roni, Yael, Adi, Sarah, Yovel, Hila and Michal. The next most popular boy’s names last year were Ro’i, Amit, Yosef, Moshe and Yehonatan. Daniel, the most popular boy’s name two years ago, dropped last year to 13th place.

Three percent of the Jewish girls who were born in 2005 were given the name Noa, while 2.1% of the boys were named Uri.

It has become increasingly popular to “share” names between boys and girls. Among the names given to both genders are Noam, Lior, Or, Shachar, Tal, Osher, and more.

Other numbers published this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics in honor of the upcoming International Children’s Day include:

• One-third of Israel’s population in 2005 was children under age 17 – a total of 2,326,400.
• The highest proportion of children – 63% – lives in the hareidi-religious Yesha town of Beitar Illit. Some Bedouin villages have similar numbers.
• 51.4% of the babies born last year were boys.
• 92% of children live with both their parents.
• Just over 69% of the children are Jewish, while just under 24% are Moslems.
• 143,900 babies were born, including 70% Jews and 23.7% Moslems – thus that the proportion of Jewish births increased slightly.

Source: Arutz-7.