Hebrew name

The term Hebrew name can be used in two ways, either meaning a name of Hebrew origin, or a name used by Jews only in a religious context and different from their everyday name.

This article is about names of Hebrew-language origin. For Jewish names, see Jewish name. For Hebrew surnames, see Hebraization of surnames.

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Hebrew names are names that have a Hebrew origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible.[1] They are mostly used by Jews and Christians, but many are also adapted to the Muslim world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qur'an (example: Ibrahim is a common Arabic name from the Hebrew Avraham). A typical Hebrew name can have many different forms, having been adapted to the phonologies of many different languages.

A common Jewish practice worldwide is to give a Hebrew name to a child that is used religiously throughout its lifetime.

Not all Hebrew names are strictly Hebrew in origin; some names may have been borrowed from other ancient languages, including from Egyptian, Aramaic, Phoenician, or Canaanite.

Names of Hebrew origin

Hebrew names used by Jews (along with many Hebrew names used in Christendom) often come from the Tanakh, also known as the Hebrew Bible or 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.

Theophoric names are those which include a form of a divine name, such by adding the suffix אל -el, meaning "God", forming names such as מיכאל Michael ("who is like God?") and גבריאל Gabriel ("man of God"). Another common form of theophory is the use of the Tetragrammaton YHWH as the basis for a suffix; the most common abbreviations used by Jews are יה -yāh/-iyyāh and יהו -yāhû/-iyyāhû/-ayhû, forming names such as ישׁעיהו Yəšaʻªyāhû (Isaiah), צדקיהו Ṣiḏqiyyāhû (Zedekiah) and שׂריה Śərāyāh (Seraiah). Most Christian usage is of the shorter suffix preferred in translations of the Bible to European languages: Greek -ιας -ias and English -iah, producing names such as Τωβιας Tōbias (Tobias, Toby) instead of Tobiyyahu and Ιερεμίας Ieremias (Jeremiah, Jeremy) instead of Yirmeyahu.

In addition to devotion to Elohim and Yahweh, 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

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 Babylonian Talmud. Aramaic remained the lingua franca of the Middle East until the time of Islam.

Judæo-Aramaic names include עבד־נגו ʻĂḇēḏ-nəḡô, בר־תלמי Bar-Talmay and תום Tôm, as well as Bar Kochba.

Hebrew-Greek names

Due to the Hellenisation of the Eastern Mediterranean and the movement of Jews around the area, many Hebrew names were adapted to Greek, reinforced by the translation of the Tanakh in the Septuagint with many Hellenized names.

Many of the names in the New Testament are of Hebrew and Aramaic origin, but were adapted to the Greek by Hellenistic Christian writers such as Paul of Tarsus.

Such Hebræo-Greek names include Ἰησοῦς Iēsous (originally from ישׁוע Yēšûªʻ), Νῶε Nōē (originally from נח Nōªḥ), Ἰσαΐας Isaias (originally from ישׁעיהו Yəšaʻªyāhû), Ἰσραήλ Israēl (originally from ישראל Yiśrā’ēl).

Furthermore, some Jews of the time had Greek Gentile names themselves, such as the Christian Luke (Greek Λουκᾶς 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, some via Greek. 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 names for themselves, such as the Christian evangelist 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

With the rise of Islam and the establishment of an Arab Caliphate, the Arabic language became the lingua franca of the Middle East and some parts of Berber North Africa. Islamic scripture such as the Qurʼan, 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 Yəhôšúªʼ, for instance.)

While most such names are common to traditional Arabic translations of the Bible, a few differ; for instance, Arabic-speaking Christians use Yasūʻ instead of ʻĪsā for "Jesus".

Such Hebræo-Arabic names include:

The influence of Aramaic is observable in several names, notably ʼIsḥāq (Isaac), where the Syriac form is simply Îsḥāq, contrasting with more Hebraic forms such as Yaʻqūb (Jacob).

Some of these Arabic names preserve original Hebrew pronunciations that were later changed by regular sound shifts; 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 -ʼēl was adapted as ـايل -īl, and Hebrew יה -yāh as ـيا -yāʼ.

Hebræo-English names

James I of England commissioned a translation of the Christian Bible from the original languages, including a translation of the Tanakh or Old Testament from Hebrew into English. This became known as the King James Version of the Bible, often referred to today by the abbreviation "KJV".

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. 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.

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.

Jewish usage

A Hebrew name is used in a religious context during prayer. When deceased relatives are remembered during the Yizkor memorial service or during the El-Malei Blessing, the Hebrew name of the deceased is used along with the Hebrew name of the father.[2] When the Misheberach (prayer for the sick) is recited, the ill person's Hebrew name is said along with the Hebrew name of the mother.[2] When a man is called to receive an aliyah to the Torah, he is identified with his Hebrew name along with his father's Hebrew name.

See also

References
  1. Mordecai Schreiber; Alvin I. Schiff; Leon Klenicki (2003). The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia. Schreiber Pub. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-887563-77-2. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017.
  2. Scherman, Nosson (1984). Sidur Ahavat Shalom: The Complete ArtScroll Siddur (2nd ed.). Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications. pp. 144, 810. ISBN 0-89906-654-2. OCLC 32151932.



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