Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 February 19

= February 19 =

Peter Coyote
According to IMDB, his birth name is Rachmil Pinchus Ben Mosha Cohon, though our article states he was born Robert Peter Cohon. Which is correct?--Boczi (talk) 15:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * IMDB is not a reliable source, while the Wikipedia article has two citations (click on the little numbers to find them). -- Jayron 32 15:53, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * His official bio is similar enough to the Wikipedia article that it makes you wonder who stole from whom. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:15, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot for your clarification!--Boczi (talk) 08:43, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

It's entirely possible that both are correct, with one caveat. It is common for religious Jews in the diaspora to give their child two different names, one in the vernacular and a Hebrew name. The caveat is that, pedantically, the surname is not part of a Hebrew name, although some communities around the world do use it in that way. His father was clearly religious at one point in time, so it wouldn't surprise me if he'd been given a Hebrew name and that was it, though I'm not familiar with the name Rachmil (maybe Rachamim?), the other names are variants on Phinehas and Moses, with "ben" of course, meaning "son of", like in Ben Hur. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 16:56, 21 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Checking you've seen this, --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:24, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

"with "ben" of course, meaning "son of" "

Is it still in use in Jewish communities? I often encounter it when doing genealogical research (one of my hobbies), but mostly for individuals predating the 19th century. Dimadick (talk) 11:12, 23 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Religious Jews all over the world continue to give their children Hebrew names to this day. "Ben" continues to mean son of and is a part of every boy's name. Girls names include the word "bat", meaning daughter of. Both words come between the child's name and the name of their father - on occasion, it comes before the name of their mother.


 * You find corollaries of ben and bat in bar mitzva and bat mitzva, with "bar" being the Aramaic form of ben, dating from the times when Aramaic was the Jewish vernacular.


 * Note that the name Benjamin, often shortened to "Ben" in many languages, derives from the word "son", but in Hebrew is pronounced Binyamin, so isn't shorted to Ben in Israel. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:31, 23 February 2018 (UTC)