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[Facts] Rakefet
What's the meaning of this Israeli female name? One of those baby names sites gave the meaning as "name of a plant", but those websites are notoriously unreliable."I've got this void in my life that can't be filled by shopping." Gabrielle in Desperate Housewives.
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The web site you quote is right, but inaccurate. The Hebrew word rakefet means cyclamen.There is a famous folk song called Rakefet. Batsheba goes into the woods to pick flowers and finally picks a beautiful cyclamen. A Yiddish version of the same song talks about "Margaritkelekh", daisies. A girl called Eve (Khavele) picks the flowers and then gets "picked" by a smart-looking fellow. I have no idea what was first, the song or the name. The website obviously started quoting Smadar Shir Sidi's "Complete Book of Hebrew Baby Names," but cut off "that grows in rocky places, cyclamen."
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thank you!
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