Tech CEO asks Apple to recognize Hebrew forms of Jesus’ name

Michael Gargiulo, a web domain broker and member of the Forbes Technology Council, on Thursday asked Apple to add alternative names of Jesus to its official dictionary software. Apple autocorrect functions consistently marked “Yeshua,” “Yahuah,” and “Yahshua” as misspellings or failed to automatically capitalize the names, he said. The names are English versions of the Hebrew name for Jesus, which are preferred by some Christians, especially in Messianic Jewish communities.

As a Christian, Gargiulo said he believes that names of the Savior should not be flagged as typos. Apple’s software automatically capitalizes and recognizes a wide variety of names from various cultural backgrounds, so the request shouldn’t be hard to fulfill, he wrote. His statement noted that Apple did appear to recognize “YHWH,” the form of God’s name commonly used throughout the Old Testament, as a correct term.

How many Messianic Jews, or Jews who follow Christ, live in the United States? About 250,000 Messianic Jews were living in the United States in 2021, according to the organization Jews for Jesus. That number doesn’t include members of Messianic congregations who are not ethnically or culturally Jewish.

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