Hebrew names are names of Hebrew language origin. They are mostly used by people living in Jewish or Christian worlds, but some are also adapted to the Islamic world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qurʾan. A typical Hebrew name can have many different forms, having been adapted to the phonologies of many different languages.
Not all Hebrew names are strictly Hebrew in origin; some names have been borrowed from other languages since ancient times, including from Egyptian, Aramaic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Spanish, German, and English.
Names of Hebrew Origin
Most Hebrew names used by Jews (along with many Hebrew names used in Christendom) come from the Jewish Tanakh, known by Christians as the Old Testament.
Many of these names are thought to have been adapted from Hebrew phrases and expressions, bestowing special meaning or the unique circumstances of birth to the one who receives that name. An example of a name with a special personal meaning is יהודה Yəhûḏāh. An example of a name indicating circumstances of birth is ראובן Rəʾûḇēn, which means "Look, a son."
Hebrew devotion to Elohim (God) is often indicated by adding the suffix אל -ʾēl/-āʾēl, forming names such as מיכאל Mîḵāʾēl and גבריאל Gaḇrîʾēl.
Hebrew devotion to the one who is represented by the Tetragrammaton is often indicated by adding an abbreviated form of the Tetragrammaton as a suffix; the most common abbreviations used by Jews are יה -yāh/-iyyāh and יהו -yāhû/-iyyāhû/-ayhû, forming names such as ישׁעיהו Yəšaʿayāhû, צדקיהו Ṣiḏqiyyāhû and שׂריה Śərāyāh. Most of Christendom uses the shorter suffix preferred in translations of the Bible to European languages, primarily Greek -ιας -ias and English -iah, producing names such as Τωβιας Tōbias and Ιερεμιας Ieremias.
In addition to devotion to Elohim and the one represented by the Tetragrammaton, names could also be sentences of praise in their own right. The name טוביהו Ṭôḇiyyāhû means "Good of/is the LORD."
Names of Aramaic Origin
At the end of the First Temple Period, the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed, and its inhabitants were taken into captivity in Babylon. While they were there, the Jews ceased to speak Hebrew as their daily language, and adopted Aramaic instead. Judæo-Aramaic was the vernacular language at the time of Jesus, and was also the language used to write parts of the Book of Daniel, the Book of Ezra, and the entire Jewish Talmud. Aramaic remained the lingua franca of the Middle East until the time of Islam.
Judæo-Aramaic names include עבד־נגו ʿĂḇēḏ-nəḡô, בר־תלמי Bar-Talmay and תום Tôm, as well as Bar Kochba.
Hebræo-Greek Names
Many of the names in the New Testament are of Hebrew and Aramaic origin, but have been adapted to the Greek by Hellenistic Christian writers such as Paul of Tarsus. Later, the Tanakh was also translated to Greek, also with many Hellenized names, and was united with the New Testament to produce the first Septuagint. Such Hebræo-Greek names include Ιησους Iēsous (originally from ישׁוע Yēšûaʿ), Νωη Nōē (originally from נח Nōaḥ), and Ισαιας Isaias (originally from ישׁעיהו Yəšaʿayāhû).
Also, some Jews of the time had Greek Gentile names themselves, such as the Christian Apostle Luke (Greek Λουκας Loukas). Though used by some Jews at the time, these names are generally not associated with Jews today, and are considered characteristically Greek and largely confined to use by Christians. Hebrew forms of the names exist, but they are extremely rare.
Hebræo-Latin Names
Many Hebrew names were adapted into Latin, but mostly through Greek, as Greek was the language of the first Christian Septuagint. Such names include Jesus (from Greek Ιησους Iēsous) and Maria (from Greek Μαριαμ Mariam, originally from Hebrew מרים Miryām).
Also, some Jews during Roman times also had Latin Gentile names for themselves, such as the Christian Apostle Mark (Latin Marcus). As was the case with contemporary Jewish names of Greek origin, most of these Latin names are generally not associated with Jews today, and today retain a Roman and Christian character.
Hebræo-Arabic Names
Some Arab tribes converted to Judaism before the coming of Islam; these tribes often used Hebrew names in Arabized forms. An example well-known in the Arab world is Samawʾal ibn ʿĀtiyah (Hebrew Šəmûʾēl), famous for his fidelity to his friends (the proverb says "more faithful than Samawʾal".)
With the rise of Islam and the establishment of an Arab Caliphate, the Arabic language became the lingua franca of the Middle East and North Africa. Islamic scripture such as the Qurʾan, however, contains many names of Hebrew origin (often via Aramaic), and there were Jewish and Christian minorities living under Arab Islamic rule. As such, many Hebrew names had been adapted to Arabic, and could be found in the Arab world. Jews and Christians generally used the Arabic adaptions of these names, just as in the present English-speaking Jews (and sometimes Muslims) often use Anglicized versions (Joshua rather than Yəhôšúaʾ, for instance.)
While most such names are common to traditional Arabic translations of the Bible, a few differ; for instance, Arabic-speaking Christians use Yasūʿ instead of ʿĪsā for "Jesus".
Such Hebræo-Arabic names include:
The influence of Aramaic is observable in several names, notably ʾIsḥāq, where the Syriac form is simply Îsḥāq, contrasting with more Hebraic forms such as Yaʿqūb.
Some of these Arabic names preserve original Hebrew pronunciations that were later changed by regular sound shifts; thus Maryam corresponds to the form recorded by classical authors, whereas the i in Miriam is the result of a later sound change (also observable in words such as migdal, recorded in the New Testament as Magdalene and in Palestinian Arabic as Majdala) which turned a in unstressed closed syllables into i.
Typically, Hebrew אל -ʾēl was adapted as ـايل -īl, and Hebrew יה -yāh as ـيا -yāʾ.
Occasionally, an Arabic name would be Hebraized; thus, for example, Saʿīd al-Fayyūmi called himself Saadia Gaon in his books, Saʿaḏyāh being an Arabic-Hebrew hybrid meaning "happy is the LORD". This may also be the origin of the name Peraḥyāh, which in Hebrew would mean "blossom of the LORD" but makes more sense as a Hebraization of Arabic Faraḥ, "joy".
Hebræo-English Names
James I of England commissioned a translation of the Tanakh from Hebrew to English, which became the Old Testament component of the new King James Version of the Bible, or "KJV" Bible. The promotion of the KJV translation spawned a whole new variety of Hebrew names that were considerably closer to the Hebrew language than their Latin counterparts. Examples include Asshur from אשור ʾAššûr instead of Ασσυρια Assyria, and Shem from שם Šēm instead of Σημ Sēm.
Even so, many KJV Old Testament names were not entirely without New Testament Greek influence. This influence mostly reflected the vowels of names, leaving most of the consonants largely intact, only modestly filtered to consonants of contemporary English phonology. However, all KJV names followed the Greek convention of not distinguishing between soft and dāḡeš forms of ב bêṯ, ג gîmel and ד dāleṯ, as well as merging ג gîmel and ע ġáyin. These habits resulted in multilingually-fused Hebræo-Helleno-English names, such as Judah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Additionally, a handful of names were adapted directly from Greek without even partial translations from Hebrew, including names such as Isaac, Moses and Jesse.
Finally, some names were not translated or adapted at all, but were harvested from names that had already existed in the English language since the Dark Ages, including quintessentially English names such as John, Mary and James, which today bear little resemblance to their original Hebrew forms.
Along with names from the KJV edition of the New Testament, these names constitute the large part of Hebrew names as they exist in the English-speaking world.
Mormon Hebrew Names
The Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price are scriptures of the LDS Church that contain many names that are not found in other widely-available literature. While considerable scientific controversy exists concerning the origins of these names, LDS assert that many of them are ultimately of varying Hebrew, Egyptian and Arabic origin, along with some of asserted "Jaredite" origin, and most of the names do appear to have a great deal of Hebrew anatomy. In a twist, many names that seem to match LDS scripture names have since been found in ancient Hebrew inscriptions in archaeological digs in Israel and Palestine. None of this is concrete proof of the origin of the names, but the fact is worthy of mention.
Some suggested name matches between LDS scripture and archaeological excavations, but that do not appear in translations of the Tanakh or New Testament, include Sariah (linked to שריה reconstructed as a feminine name in an Aramaic papyrus from Elephantine), Jarom (linked to ירם, but compare also the Old Testament Joram ), Alma (linked to אלמא, used as a masculine name in the Bar Kokhba letters), and Josh (linked to יאש; cf. Old Testament Joash ).
See also
Last updated: 02-08-2005 23:54:59
