What's In a Name?

Seems like Tom Cruise is really off his rocker. The folks in Israel are not only scratching their heads on the name he gave his newborn but wondering what he will do next for some PR. Bad enough Maddona decided to become a "Jewish Mystic" but now Mr. Scientology?

(JERUSALEM) - Suri, the name chosen by Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for their newborn daughter, is raising more than its share of interest in Israel.

It means 'get out of here' in the local language, Hebrew.

News of the naming puzzled even those Israelis who thought they had seen it all after pop diva Madonna turned the ancient Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah into a faith for the famous.

'I really don't know what they were thinking when they chose this name. It's a term that denotes expulsion, like 'Get out of here',' said Gideon Goldenberg, a linguistics professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 'It's pretty blunt.'

Yaron London, a cultural commentator for Israel's Channel 10 television, had this rhetorical question for Suri's proud parents: 'Why didn't you just go back to your ancestors' language, and call the kid 'Scram Cruise'?'" More...