Dishonoring Our Great People

 

A longstanding peeve of mine was reinforced today as I was listening to a shiur.  The person giving the shiur said, "I was walking on Shmuel Ha'Navi ..."

Shmuel Ha'Navi is the name of a street in Yerushalayim.  There is a section of Yerushalayim where the streets are named for the prophets: Rechov Shmuel Ha'Navi, Rechov Yechezkel, Rechov Eli Ha'Cohen etc.

I have long thought it is wrong to name streets for great people because what ends up happening is, it is not an honor to them, but a dishonor.  Like, "Let's meet for pizza on Shmuel Ha'Navi," or as the person giving the shiur said (though didn't mean it as it sounded), he walked on the prophet.

Beautiful Names

Sometimes you hear people say, "What a beautiful name!" when they hear the name of a baby or are otherwise told about a name. 

Question is, what do they mean? What makes a name beautiful?

I can think of two factors.  One is the significance of the name; it's not the name per se but what it signifies, maybe the person being named for.

Second is more mundane, that the syllables are pleasing to the ear.  Names with a ches sound are not mellifluous.  Names with a lamed are.  And if there is more than one name, it's how pleasingly the names sound together, if they "work" well together or just seem stuck together randomly (in which case usually only one of the names will be used on a regular basis).

Other reasons?