Benjamin (first name)

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Benjamin is a male given name , which also occurs as a family name .

variants

  • Ben
  • Am
  • Benjy
  • Benji
  • Benny
  • Beni
  • Benj
  • Benni
  • Bennie
  • Bennian
  • Binjamin , Binyamin (Hebrew)
  • Beniamino (Italian)
  • Benjaminas , Benas (Lithuanian)
  • Bengiamin (Rhaeto-Romanic)
  • Beniamin (Romanian, Polish)
  • Veniamin, Wenjamin (Russian)
  • Benjamín (Spanish)
  • Bünyamin (Turkish)

etymology

The name is first mentioned in letters under King Sin-Kašid of Uruk (1801–1771 BC), who called himself “King of Amnanum” and the Amurian tribal association of the “Binu-Jamina” (single name “Binjamin”; Akkadian "Mar-Jamin") belonged. The name means "Sons / Son of the South" and is linguistically related to the Old Testament name "Benjamin" as a forerunner . There he describes the youngest of the 12 sons of Jacob, who are considered to be the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel : Benjamin (Bible) .

The Hebrew name "Ben-Jamin" is a combination of the elements בן ben ("son") and ימין jamin ("south", "right hand"). The last element initially refers to the direction of the compass (stem designation), or the right, honorable side of the namesake (personal name). Benjamin is a foreign name that literally means “son of the south” or “son of the right hand”, somewhat more freely “the one belonging to the south”, “the one on the right side” or “the particularly honored”. At the beginning of the development there was probably a plural form בני ימין "the southern people". Translations as “son of happiness” or “son of consolation” are not considered appropriate in research.

A meaning derived from the Bible is "the youngest" since Benjamin was the last of Jacob's twelve sons. In some groups or families, when they are introduced, the youngest member is often referred to as our Benjamin , even if the named person has a different name.

distribution

At the beginning of the 1970s, the name Benjamin quickly gained popularity in Germany after it was hardly used before. He was among the top ten most given boy names a couple of times in the 1980s. Since then, its popularity has declined somewhat. Except in the German-speaking area, the first name occurs particularly in the English, French and Dutch-speaking areas.

Name bearer

First name

Benjamin

Benjamin

stage name

  • Benjamin (* 1974), Chinese comic artist

Fictional character

Name day in the Christian tradition

December 19th or March 31st

Binyamin Zeʾev

Because of the meeting of the words Benjamin and Zeʾev in Genesis ( Gen 49.27  EU ), which can be interpreted as Benjamin is a wolf , the double name Benjamin Zeʾev is often chosen.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b Cf. Dietz-Otto Edzard : The nomads in the old Babylonian time In: Elena Cassin , Jean Bottéro , Jean Vercoutter : The Old Orientals I - From the Paleolithic to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. - , Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1965 (eponymous limited special edition 2003), p. 170.
  2. ↑ Mowinckel, S .: "Rahelstämme" and "Leastämme" . In: Hempel, J. / Rost, L. (Ed.): From Ugarit to Qumran, FS O. Eißfeldt; BZAW . tape 77 . de Gruyter, Berlin 1958, p. 129 .
  3. ↑ Benjamin. Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Statistics on "Popular first names"
  5. ↑ Benjamin on behindthename.com (Engl.)
  6. ↑ http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/JewishHebrewYiddish.html