ALEPH: Natalie Portman’s Baby’s Name

We now know the name of Natalie Portman’s baby son, Aleph!

People magazine has revealed the name of actress Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied’s new baby, and it is ‘Aleph’.

Aleph, which can also be spelled Alef, is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. From Wikipedia:

Written as (in Hebrew), spelled as (in Hebrew) and transcribed as Aleph.
In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter represents either a glottal stop, or has no pronunciation besides that of the vowel attached to it. The pronunciation varies among Jewish ethnic groups.
In gematria, aleph represents the number 1, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 1000
Aleph, along with Ayin, Resh, He, and Heth, cannot receive a dagesh. (However, there are few very rare examples where the Masoretes added a dagesh to an Aleph or Resh.)
In Modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of alef, out of all the letters, is 4.94%.
Aleph is sometimes used as a mater lectionis to denote a vowel, usually /a/. Such use is more common in words of Aramaic and Arabic origin, in foreign names and some other borrowed words.

So tell me Smackaholics, do you love the name Aleph or not? I quite like it, it is unusual, at least in this part of the world. It’s not the name of fruit or an animal, so I think Aleph got off pretty easy compared to some other celebrity babies…

Be Sociable, Share!

•