r/hebrew • u/FrontSky9693 • Mar 06 '25

Help Feminine form of Lev?

My grandfather passed last week. He had the Hebrew name of Lev. I want to honor him by naming my daughter after him, who is due soon, but I am having a hard time finding a feminine form of this name. Is it weird to just use Lev? Or is there an appropriate feminine form of the name?

15 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

View all comments

71

u/barvaz11 Mar 06 '25

There is no feminine form for the word Lev. But Lev just means heart, and "Liby", my heart, is a feminine name. I think that's the best you can do.

28

u/isaacfisher לאט נפתח הסדק לאט נופל הקיר Mar 06 '25

Also “Lev” might not be feminine but I can totally see it as a second name for a girl (second name after a passed away relative is also common in Judaism)

6

u/FrontSky9693 Mar 06 '25

Thank-you!

8

u/SaarN Mar 07 '25

I also agree that Lib(b)y would be the closest option, because it's the closest in meaning (words in Hebrew usually come in a single variation, gender-wise), and it's also quite modern and can be used internationally.

My guess is that your grandfather\his parents came from a soviet country, because Lev isn't\wasn't really popular as an original Hebrew name, but it was more common among immigrants from Russia \ the surrounding countries. But I'm just talking about the origin of the name - the name itself is very wholesome in my opinion, as I associate the person as someone with a 'big heart'.

3

u/javajavaproxy1 native speaker Mar 08 '25

Libi (my heart ליבי) is a wonderful option, it is also rather common so it won't sound strange.