• Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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      15 days ago

      My first temptation was to say “JK Rowling writing a Jewish character ass name”, too, but apparently Mizrahi has been a fairly common (or at least not unheard of) surname for centuries. Wikipedia seems to indicate that Mizrahi is most often a Sephardic surname — originally pointing to someone who arrived to Iberia from the east — however it seems like there are also a number of actual Mizrahim with the surname Mizrahi, interestingly, including a number of American Jews of Middle Eastern descent. The most famous person named Mizrahi appears to be Elijah Mizrachi (1455-1525), author of The Mizrachi, a very creatively titled supercommentary on Rashi’s commentary on the Torah. There was apparently also an Egyptian Olympic fencer in the 1920s named Joseph “Jack” Mizrahi, who I am very curious about now.

      So in hindsight, you know, I don’t know if Jenny Mizrahi actually chose that name in the same way as Bibi’s dad was born Mileikowsky, or if ol’ Jenny was like born in Seppoland and was given a typical Anglo forename with the inherited surname Mizrahi. But you know, in any case, with that added context, “Jenny Mizrahi” seems only as silly a name as like, I dunno, Jason Costello or something.