Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Did You Know That Ivanka Trump’s Real Name Isn’t Ivanka?

Ivanka Trump angered many earlier this year when she was named as an official advisor to her father, the president. But many may not know that “Ivanka” is not her name at all.

The First Daughter’s legal name is Ivana Marie Trump. She was named after her mother, Ivana. “Ivanka” is a nickname, much like “Bobby” is a nickname for “Robert.”

Here are some more fun facts about names in Trump’s family:

• Trump’s Hebrew name is “Yael.” In the Book of Judges, a woman named Yael came upon the enemy king Sisera, who had fled from battle with the Isralites. She fed and sheltered him until he fell asleep. Then she killed him by using a mallet to drive a tent peg into his skull.

• Trump’s great-grandmother, who founded the company that is now the Trump Organization, was named Elisabeth Christ.

• The names that Trump and her husband Jared Kushner picked for their children share striking similarities with members of the Kennedy political dynasty. Her oldest daughter, Arabella, shares the name of President John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s firstborn daughter, who was stillborn. Trump’s second child, Joseph, shares the name of the Kennedy family patriarch—and his middle name is Frederick, giving him the initials JFK. The name of the youngest child, Theodore or “Theo,” is reminiscent of former Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.