Requirement to Have a Jewish Name

After a scary couple of weeks of slavery, in this week's parsha the evil Pharaoh finally lets us go free. The Medrash (Vayikra Raba 32:5) asks the obvious question; we all know the Jews were on the 49th level of tumah (there are only 50- so do them math and we were pretty bad), so in what merit did the Jews deserve to go free? The Medrash answers "Because of four things the Jews merited to leave Egypt: 1. They didn't change their names. 2. They didn't change their language. 3. They didn't speak Loshon Hara. 4. They weren't steeped in immorality." (People also say one of the reasons was because they didn't change their clothing, but I couldn't find the source for that one- if you do know the source please email Thehalachaboy@gmail.com and share with him your depth and breadth of torah knowledge) It is the first of these four I would like to focus on today. It would seem from this Medrash that giving a child a non-jewish name is a very serious sin. However, I have many friends who have non-jewish names and a few friends that are having children and naming them non-jewish names- so what is the leniency? To clarify, what we are discussing is the name given to you at your bris/ girl-name giving ceremony. Having an 'english' name which you aren't called up to the torah/ sign on a kesubah with, in the eyes of halacha is just a nickname and is no real halachic problem. Hashkafically I know many people (mostly girls) who transformed into their hebrew names around the age of 18 but it was not for a halachic reason, but more of a spiritual, priority refocus, social reason. JOKE ALERT:(In fact one girl I knew when she got married was so anti-feminist she changed her first name also) Yet, there are many people who don't have a real Hebrew name. Most of these people have yiddush names (lazer, hersh, raizel, blima, faigy, gittel, Michael finkelstein etc) - which while they sound frum, seem to pose this halachic problem. Rav Moshe (Orech Chaim Section 5, Question 10) deals with this question and answers with a novel approach. He posits that having a jewish name isn't one of the 613 mitzvos- so why is it the Jews got reward for not changing their name? He answers that before har sinai- and the giving of the torah- Jews looked a lot and acted a lot like non-jews. There was no requirement to keep shabbas, wear a kippah, cover your hair, etc. Most Jews didn't even do bris milah in Egypt, either. So anything Jews did to differentiate themselves from the non-jews while in exile was viewed by Hashem as a self-sacrifice and commitment to Judaism, and that is why Hashem redeemed them. However, nowadays when we have 613 ways to differentiate ourselves, there is no requirement to name a child with a Jewish name. Further Rav Moshe adds, JOKE ALERT this only applies by Jewish names that have been accepted by the Jewish community, but to name a child a non-jewish name (Deshawn, Xavier, Latisha, HeHateMe) while not forbidden is still disgusting. A "jewish" name does not have to be from the torah, but it needs to be a name that has been accepted and used by Jews. Many of the great rabbis, in fact, had "non-jewish" names. From Rav Laibel Eiger, Rav Akiva Eiger's grandson, to the Rambam's father Maimon to the great sages in the gemara Rav Pappa and Rav Zvi, just to name of a few. Nowadays a great abundance of Yiddish names have taken on the status of 'jewish' names one and hence one is permitted to name a child with them.