Rabbi Baruch Babaev: Parents, Not Rabbis, Choose a Child’s Name

Can a rabbi tell parents what to name their baby? “No!” Rabbi Baruch Babaev, chief rabbi of the Bukharian Jews of the United States and Canada, told The Bukharian Times. “That has never been the case, is not the case now, and never will be.”

Editor Rafael Nektalov said he raised the question after meeting a young Orthodox couple from Samarkand who had not named their first son after the husband’s recently deceased father, saying their rabbi had told them which name to give. The interview ran in Russian on Sept. 24 and in English on Oct. 1, 2026.

What a rabbi should do

A rabbi advises, Babaev said. He should explain the laws and traditions of the family’s community, ask whether the parents’ parents are living and learn the names of grandparents who have died. If those names are already taken by older children, he may suggest names from the Torah or of great sages. “But there should be no pressure,” he said. “The right to choose belongs exclusively to the parents. Grandparents and other relatives cannot demand a particular name against the parents’ wishes.”

The Bukharian order

Among Bukharian Jews, Babaev said, children are generally named after the closest deceased relatives. The first son is named for the paternal grandfather and the first daughter for the paternal grandmother, and the second son and daughter are named for the mother’s side. It is not customary, he said, to name children after living relatives, unlike Sephardim, among whom that practice is encouraged.

He said a boy receives his name at the brit milah on the eighth day, and a girl in the synagogue at a Torah reading soon after birth. Where a relative died young or tragically, families may add protective names such as Chaim or Boruch. He cited the Midrash that a person has three names: one from parents, one from others, and one earned through deeds.

The interview was conducted in Russian; quotations are from The Bukharian Times’ English translation.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (English, Oct. 1); The Bukharian Times (Russian, Sept. 24).