# BEAR or BERKO



## deuce

Hi, I am new. Any help would be appreciated.

I am expecting a baby boy in 7 months and we have decided on Berko as his name. Berko is hebrew for bear.

I have found many hebrew references to bear and it written in hebrew. My question is...


Is Berko written the same way as "bear"?

If Berko is written diffrently - how is it written?
This is going to be a future tattoo, so I really need someone who knows their hebrew and hopefully some verification on whoever answers first.


Thanks!


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## morgoth2604

Um...I don't really know where you got that from, but the hebrew word for bear is Dov. 
What exactly do you mean is it written the same way? Hebrew uses a different alphabet...
Dov is written like this:

*דוב*


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## übermönch

It makes sence since Hebrew has little in common with indoeuropean languages. It seems to be Jiddish. Take a look at the following site (use the search function), it also says it means 'bear'==>

http://tunkelfamilysite.com/names.html


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## Jana337

übermönch said:
			
		

> it makes sense since hebrew has little in common with indoeuropean languages. It seems to be jiddish. Take a look at the following site (use the search function), it also says it means 'bear'==>
> 
> http://tunkelfamilysite.com/names.html


Plausible, the German word is Bär, which makes the connection to Yiddish very straighforward. 

Jana


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## deuce

morgoth2604 said:
			
		

> Um...I don't really know where you got that from, but the hebrew word for bear is Dov.
> What exactly do you mean is it written the same way? Hebrew uses a different alphabet...
> Dov is written like this:
> 
> *דוב*



I got it from a baby name book (probably not the best source of information)


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## deuce

übermönch said:
			
		

> It makes sence since Hebrew has little in common with indoeuropean languages. It seems to be Jiddish. Take a look at the following site (use the search function), it also says it means 'bear'==>


what's this all mean? Sorry, I'm slow. What is Jiddish in comparision with Hebrew?


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## morgoth2604

Yiddish is what the Jews in Eastern europe spoke, it's mostly german combined with hebrew, but it's a bit different. I think German speakers _could_ understand Yiddish, or some of it anyways.


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## übermönch

My grandma spoke Yiddish. It's middle high German with some slavic and hebrew vocabulary written with Hebrew letters with lots of Slavic, mainly Polish and Russian grammar and diminutative forms. I cannot understand it fully even though i speak both german, frankish & russian as native languages. It's also extremely beautiful and melodic. I'm sure you'll be able to find some songs in it.


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## deuce

well thank you all for your help.

I want to come to a basic conclusion.

Dov (Hebrew) = Bear
Berko (Yiddish) = Bear

Is this correct?


(looking through these posts it is called both Yiddish and Jiddish, which is correct?)


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## JLanguage

deuce said:
			
		

> well thank you all for your help.
> 
> I want to come to a basic conclusion.
> 
> Dov (Hebrew) = Bear
> Berko (Yiddish) = Bear
> 
> Is this correct?
> 
> 
> (looking through these posts it is called both Yiddish and Jiddish, which is correct?)


 
Jiddish is the German spelling, Yiddish is the English spelling.


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## maxl

Berko is not exactly Yiddish. The Yiddish form of the name would be Ber, and in the diminutive Berl, Berele, or Berish. The form Berko is the Slavic form by which the non-Jewish neighbour (say Ukrainian or Rumanian) would call his Jewish neighbour whose name is Ber or Berl. Similar forms are Moshko, Itsko, and it is from these form that the family names Moshkovitch, Berkovitch, Itskovitch stem. This same Ber, when called to read the Torah-scroll in the synagogue, would probably be summoned by his 'official' name, Dov-Ber.


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## übermönch

would someone perhaps write "berko" with hebrew letters?


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## JLanguage

übermönch said:
			
		

> would someone perhaps write "berko" with hebrew letters?


ברקו

I don't know if the above is correct, as Yiddish's spelling is very different from Hebrew.


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## havanese-minded

How do you pronounce "Ber" in Dov-Ber?


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## OriGinal

in Hebrew, there is no such word as Berko
and I dont think that Dov (bear in Hebrew) will fit
a little boy growing up in the US.
if I were you I would stick with Berko!
Good luck Deuce


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## havanese-minded

Were you replying to my question?  (I'm not sure)  But why wouldn't you name an American boy Dov-Ber??? It's a wonderful name!  

Nevertheless, I was wondering how one pronounces "Ber", as in Dov-Ber.  Can you give me a phonetic spelling? (American accent) Is it like _Dahv-bear?_

Thanks so much


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## dekdek

Dov-ber is just as we spelled it; Dov-bear
Maybe it's so fashionable to give children special exotic names, but after all it's pretty weird to walk in the kindergarten and say: hello my name is dov-bear, it's from yiddish.


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