After her son Emet Kuli Loeb Hershkovitz was born in 2012, singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb wrote a blog post about his birth and included a few details about his name:
We chose the name Emet because it’s a Hebrew word meaning “truth” that also sounds like a Southern name […] That way my husband’s family from Israel, my family from Texas, and other folks we see on a regular basis can pronounce the name in their own way, but correctly!
Kuli is Roey’s grandfather’s name — actually a nickname — the name he was known by for most of his life. Since he was a very fast soccer player, everyone called him “Kuli” a shortened version of the Hungarian word “kulimász” meaning cart grease, used to make wheels on carts faster.
I love the unique story behind Kuli. Though I am curious to how the Israeli (?) grandfather came to have a nickname that was based on a Hungarian word.
Lisa and husband Roey Hershkovitz also have a daughter named Lyla Rose, born in 2009.
Probably grandpa Kuli was born in Hungary and moved to Israel after WWII. Not unusual for that generation of Jews.
That would make sense.