What’s in a Name? The Bible vs. the Middle Ages

This piece is a revised version of a talk delivered at 2016’s International Society of Biblical Literature conference in Seoul.

See: “Name,” in Lexicon Biblicum, I (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1975), pp. 845-844; Martin Noth, Die Israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der Gemeinsemitischen Namengebung (Stuttgart, 1928).

For a different approach to this story, see Raanan Eichler,“Gender Equality at Creation”. TheTorah.com.

This is a rare example of a story explaining a woman’s name in the bible. We have much less to go on when analyzing women’s names in the biblical period and I will be focusing on male names in this section. For more on female names in the biblical period, see: Johann J. Stamm, „Hebräische Frauennamen“ in Beiträge zur hebräischen und altorientalischen Namenkunde (OBO 30; Freiburg Universitätsverlag, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980), 97-135.

In the story from which this author was copying, the character’s name was Atrahasis (meaning, “exceedingly wise”). For more on this see Shalom Holtz, “The Flood Story in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context,” TheTorah.com.   

Another possible example is Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth, who rules in his father’s place for two years (2 Samuel 2:10) after the latter’s death. The name means “Man of Shame” and it makes no sense that his parents would have given him such a name. Indeed, in Chronicles we find that he was actually called Eshbaal (1 Chronicles 8:33). The narrator turns his name into something negative by changing the designation of the Canaanite god, Baal, to the term “boshet,” which means shame, apparently demonstrating the negative narrator’s attitude to both Saul’s son and the Canaanite god after whom he was named. Alternatively, the author of Samuel may have also originally written Ish-Baal, but this could have been changed by a later scribe, uncomfortable with the name. Thus, this example is less certain than that of Nabal.

It is worth noting that most scholars believe both of these explanations to be folk etymologies. Most likely the name means “he will protect.” In the ANE, this name often came with a theophoric element, such as Yaaqob-El (El will protect) or the Hyksos Pharaoh Yaaqob-Hor (Horus will protect). See the HALOT entry for יעקב.

Jacob also deceives Laban, following his father-in-law’s similar behavior towards him, and his own sons mislead him as well.

For more on this, see Jeaneane D. Fowler, Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew: A Comparative Study (JSOTsupp 49; JSOT press, 1988).

The name Moses (משה), which means “son of” in Egyptian, is a hypocoristic (=shortened) form of this name, with an implied theophoric element. The same is likely true of the name Isaac (יצחק), “he will laugh” and, as referenced above, Jacob (יעקב), “he will protect.”

The basis for analyzing them is somewhat informal, but I believe that this type of analysis provides a significant addition to the characterization of this society. My analysis focuses on given names only, and does not deal with the issue of family names and nicknames. Most of the people mentioned in these documents are referred to not only by their names, but also by their fathers’ and grandfathers’ names; thus, this survey gives us the opportunity to examine multi-generation family traditions.

Benzion C. Kaganoff, “Jewish First Names through the Ages”, Commentary 20 (Nov 1955), 447-452. 

Interestingly, in the Persian period, we have a famous biblical example of a woman with two names: Esther (Persian) has a Hebrew name, Hadassah (“myrtle”).

Names were specifically male or female; very few names were gender-neutral. As the naming practices differ for boys and girls, (as was also the custom in the biblical period), we will take each group separately and begin with boys.

Almost any male in Muslim society, including the Jews had at least four or five names and nicknames:

• Ism – first or private name;
• Kunia – nickname after his first son or physical feature;
• Nasab – according to his genealogy;
• Nisba – according to his occupation or place of origin;
• Laqab – title of honor or high position.

“To give” in Arabic is either wahab or ‘ata.

In this, the Jews differed from other groups under Islam, such as the Christians.

Still today, in modern western society, Jews use names from the New Testament such as Marc, Matthew, Stephan, even Peter or Paul, but not Jesus or names with the term “Christ” in it (Christian, Christopher, Christina, etc.).

Intermittency/paponomy was not a factor in naming girls.

Critically speaking, this verse likely means something else entirely. But the rabbis understood it this way. See, for example, b. Gittin 12a, b. Shebuot 30a, as well as the praise for Kimchit found in a number of places in the Jerusalem Talmud, and discussed in the Marjorie Lehman’s TABS essay,“Kimchit’s Head Covering: Between Rabbis and Priests,”TheGemara.com, 2016.  

We know this from both Muslim chronicles and Genizah documents. There are many studies which deal with this subject, such as W.J Fischel, Jews in the Economic and Political Life of Mediaeval Islam, New York, 1969; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5 vo., especially vol. I, University of California Press, 1967, and more.

This was not the first time Jews were fully integrated into a non-Jewish or non-Israelite society. Some other examples where we see this are in the Murashu tablets from Nippur in Babylonia and the Elephantine papyri in Egypt, both dating to the 5^th century BCE. 

See for example M. Gil, The Tustaris; Family and Sect, The Diaspora Research Institute, Tel Aviv 1981, pp. 37-43. This trend continued for many centuries, under the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties. By then, however, it was more as a habit than a matter of forethought, because hostility toward the non-Muslim population grew stronger as time went on, and such far-reaching integration of the Jews in the social and economic fabric of Muslim society as that which had existed during the Fatimid era could no longer continue.

As we noted above, this is true only of boys’ names. For girls’ names, meaning remains important; she is often referred to by a certain quality or physical feature. Nevertheless, a girl’s given name in this society is only temporary and falls out of use after marriage.