Re: CHAT: Yitzik's name (was Re: THEORY: Ergativity and polypersonalism)

Aloha!

Tristan McLeay wrote:

> I'm confused... Igor, Issac, Yitzik... how does this all fit together?
> IIRC Yitzik was the Hebrew form of Isaac, and the name you preferred to
> be called? Where does Igor fit?
I'm sorry for confusing you. This is a reflection of my dubious
ethno-religious status + some problems with Ukrainian civil legislation.

I'll try to explain.
Yitzik is a Yiddish (not Hebrew!) diminuative form of Hebrew name Yitz'hhaq,
of which Isaac is a European equivalent through Septuagint and Vulgate. I
regularly use "Yitzik" as my web nick.

My real name according to the official documents is Igor'. This is quite a
wide-spread Slavic name in ex-USSR. As I was born in a family of mixed
Russian and Ukrainian ethnic origin, this is the way my parents called me
and it is written in my birth certificate and "passport" (=identification
card).

When I got interested in Judaism, and started practising one of its
slightly-non-standard forms (details may be discussed off-list, since I try
to follow the "no cross no crown" principle here), I took a Jewish name for
myself - Isaac. This is the name my friends call me now. As I had not yet
passed any official procedure of "formal conversion" or "joining the Jewish
nation" (mostly because the form I practise, is non-Orthodox, but the Jewish
authorities recognize only Orthodox conversions as valid), I have no
official document recognized by the Ukrainian state, to change the name in
my passport etc. To do it just because I want to change the name is a very
difficult procedure in Ukraine involved in too much bureaucratics. To say
nothing about impossibility to change your patronimic if your father is
dead - but maybe they make exceptions for such cases as "geirim" (Jewish
converts).

I hope I have not violated the "no cross no crown" principle by this message
so far.

-- Y.