What about hebrew names? Why do you need my parents' names and what if i don't have one?

Your full hebrew name is you son/daughter of dad & mom. In the old days the jews in the shtetl didn't have last names, so the only way for everyone in the village to tell the difference between this shlomo and that shlomo was that one was the son of pinchas and the other the son of tevya, and so they became shlomo ben, or son of, pinchas and shlomo ben tevya. These days we also add the mothers' names to identify you, so when i ask for your parents' hebrew names, it is only to complete your name in hebrew and their names will only appear in your hebrew name. If you or a parent don't have a hebrew name I will transliterate the english name (see below for more on this).

Here are a few more details about hebrew names:

I only need the first part of each parents' name, before "ben" or "bat", since the part after would be your grandparents' name and then we'd have an infinite regression.

Please don't worry about how to spell these names in english as they will only appear in hebrew.

If someone doesn't have a hebrew name, either because they don't remember it or because they are not jewish, i will transliterate, or write in hebrew letters, their english name, without the last name.

If someone has a hebrew name but can't remember it a good place to look for it is on their ketubah or on your naming or bris certificate, which you can fax me a copy of if you can't read hebrew.

If there is no relationship with a parent they do not need to be included. For other complicated family issues, please contact me as there is usually an easy way to sort it out.