כנוי

My great-grandmother’s name was Zina, and it wasn’t until I was 32 that I found out that she was actually Zelda, not Zinaida. I found out that it’s not just my great-grandmother’s story. The Jews have such a word as “Kinnuy”. Kinnuy (Hebrew: כנוי), literally “nickname”, is a secular name of a Jew, usually taken from the language of the country of residence, and used in communication with non-Jews.