Michael Bloomberg’s Granddaughter Has a Pretty Unusual Name
Emma and Georgina Bloomberg with their father, Michael Bloomberg, as he swears in for his third term as New York City mayor. Image by Getty Images
By Anne Cohen July 8, 2015
Love it or hate it, in New York, the Bloomberg name means something.
But Michael Bloomberg’s first and only granddaughter will never have the unique pleasure of receiving side-eyed glances aimed at that Bloomberg girl. Born to Emma Bloomberg and Chris Frissora on March 22, Zelda Violet was given the hybrid surname “Frissberg,” (Frissora + Bloomberg = Frissberg).
A spokesman for Bloomberg told the Times that “the name is meant to represent that Zelda is a combination of her parents,” and is a “term used by friends to describe [her parents] as a couple.”
Bloomberg’s other grandchild — his youngest daughter Georgina’s son Jasper — also endured some naming escapades. He was first given the surname of his father, Ramiro Quintana, at birth. After Quitana and Georgina split up, Jasper took on his mother’s name. (There is now a gallery at the new Whitney Museum of American art named after him.)
But Frissberg is far from the first Jewish hybrid name. In 2006, New York Times reporter Jodi Wilgoren announced that she would be going by the name “Rudoren,” a combination of the first three letters from her husband Gary’s surname, Ruderman, and the four last letters of her own.
“It’s just a made-up moniker,” she wrote at the time, “but it is made up of our commitment to equality, with a nod to family history and a dash of out-of-the-box creativity. Most important, it is a name we share and will share with our potential offspring. To me there is no sound so sweet.”
Which all begs the question: What would other Jewish celebrity hybrid names sound like? We decided to try a few combinations:
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick: Brodker/Parkerick
Black Tie: Actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker get all gussied up for the reopening of the New York City Center. Image by Getty Images
Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman: Barryman/Kopelmore
Image by Getty Images
David Benioff and Amanda Peet: Beet/Penioff
Image by Getty Images
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher: Kutchis/Kuner
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher Image by Getty Images
Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied: Portepied/Milleman
Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied Image by Getty Images
Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman: Bandelman/Hanks
Image by Getty Images
Lena Dunham and Jack Antonoff: Dunhoff/Antonham
Image by Getty Images
Jessica Sklar and Jerry Seinfeld: Skleinfeld/Seinfar
Image by Getty Images
Have any hybrid name suggestions? Let us know in the comments!
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
