Hebrew names are names that have a Hebrew language origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible. They are mostly used by Jews and Christians, but many are also adapted to the Islamic 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 his or her 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.
Video Hebrew name
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 ?? -el, meaning "God," forming names such as ????? Michael ("who is like God?") and ?????? Gabriel ("man of God"). Another common form of theophory is the use of the Tetragrammaton as the basis for a suffix; the most common abbreviations used by Jews are ?? -y?h/-iyy?h and ??? -y?hû/-iyy?hû/-ayhû, forming names such as ??????? Y??a?ªy?hû (Isaiah), ?????? ?i?qiyy?hû (Zedekiah) and ????? ??r?y?h (Seraiah). Most Christian usage is of the shorter suffix preferred in translations of the Bible to European languages: Greek -??? -ias and English -iah, producing names such as ?????? T?bias (Tobias, Toby) instead of Tobiyyahu and ???????? Ieremias (Jeremiah, Jeremy) instead of Yirmeyahu.
In addition to devotion to Elohim and YHWH, names could also be sentences of praise in their own right. The name ?????? ?ô?iyy?hû means "Good of/is the LORD."
Maps Hebrew name
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 ??????? ?????-n??ô, ??????? Bar-Talmay and ??? 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 ?????? I?sous (originally from ????? Y??ûª?), ??? N?? (originally from ?? N?ª?), ?????? Isaias (originally from ??????? Y??a?ªy?hû), ?????? Isra?l (originally from ????? Yi?r?'?l).
Also, some Jews of the time had Greek Gentile names themselves, such as the Christian Luke (Greek ?????? 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 ?????? I?sous) and Maria (from Greek ?????? Mariam, originally from Hebrew ???? Miry?m).
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 Qur'an, 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 Y?hô?úª', for instance.)
While most such names are common to traditional Arabic translations of the Bible, a few differ; for instance, Arabic-speaking Christians use Yas?? instead of ??s? for "Jesus".
Such Hebræo-Arabic names include:
- 'Ayy?b ????? (from Hebrew ???? 'Iyyô?) (Job)
- Y?suf ???? (from Hebrew ???? Yôs?p?) (Joseph)
- D?'?d ???? (from Hebrew ??? D?wi?) (David)
- 'Ism???l ??????? (from Hebrew ??????? Yi?m??êl) (Ishmael)
- 'Is??q ????? (from Hebrew ???? Yi???q) (Isaac)
- Ya?q?b ????? (from Hebrew ???? Ya?ªq??) (Jacob)
- '?dam ??? (from Hebrew ??? '???m) (Adam)
- ?aww?' ???? (from Hebrew ??? ?aww?h) (Eve)
The influence of Aramaic is observable in several names, notably 'Is??q (Isaac), where the Syriac form is simply Îs??q, contrasting with more Hebraic forms such as Ya?q?b (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 ?? -'?l was adapted as ???? -?l, and Hebrew ?? -y?h as ??? -y?'.
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 d??e? forms of ? bê?. 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.
See also
- Christian name
- Arabic name
- List of Hebrew place names
References
External links
- List of Hebrew names at Wiktionary
- Most Popular American Women's Names In Hebrew (Phonetic Transliteration)
- Customs relating to the naming of a child from the Chabad group of Hassidic Judaism
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Christian Names". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - article on old testament naming from a Catholic perspective
- List of over 2500 Hebrew names used in Israel with pronunciation
- List of all first names used in Israel with pronunciation and statistics in Hebrew
- A list of all modern Hebrew names and their meaning
- List of all Hebrew first names used in Israel, all Hebrew Names For Boys & Girls ( 2016 Update )
- Names from Hebrew to Turkish
Source of article : Wikipedia
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