List of German first names from the Bible

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A large number of given names in the German-speaking area come from the Bible . The Old Testament names are mostly of Hebrew origin, names from the New Testament not infrequently come from the Greek .

A.

אהרן

Aaron was the name of the first high priest of the Jews and the elder brother of Moses . The meaning of the name is not entirely clear; it is possible that it means “illuminator” or “mountain man”.

אברהם

Abraham (Abrāhām, "father of the multitude") is the biblical name of the ancestor of the Israelites . His story is told in the book of Moses (Genesis). According to this, along with Isaac and Jacob, he is one of the patriarchs from whom, according to biblical tradition, the twelve-tribed union of the people of Israel emerged.

עדה

Ada is related to "decorate". Ada (Greek αδα ) is a biblical figure in the 1st book of Moses. She is the first wife of Lamech, the son of Metuschael, and the mother of Jabal and Jubal. It is mentioned in Gen 4,19-23 EU: “Lamech took two wives; one was called Ada, the other Zilla. Ada gave birth to Jabal; he became the progenitor of those who lived in tents and with cattle. His brother was called Jubal; he became the progenitor of all zither and flute players. "

אָדָם

Adam (Hebrew man; he who was taken from the earth [adamah]) was created by God from the clay of the soil, after which the breath of life was breathed into him. Then God let him fall into a deep sleep, took a rib from him and created his partner Eva (chawah, the animated) from it. According to Jewish myths , Adam had another wife before Eve, Lilith, who, like him, was made of earth.

Ανδρέας

Like his brother Simon Peter, Andrew was an apostle of Jesus Christ . The Gospel of John reports that Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist, who then referred him to Jesus, whereupon he also led his brother Simon to Jesus with the message "We have found the Messiah" (Jn 1,35-42). Hence its traditional nickname “The First Called”.

חַנָּה

The name Anna comes from the first name Hannah and means "the gifted" or "the one protected by God" or "charm and grace". Jesus' grandmother, the mother of Mary, is not mentioned in the Bible, but is called Anna in church tradition. This is to be understood as the Latin-adapted variant of her real name "Hannah".

B.

Balthasar means "Baal save his life" or from Belshazzar: "Baal / God save the king". Baal means something like lord or master. He is one of the three wise men ; However, the Bible does not mention their names, they have only been handed down since the 8th century.

The name Bartholomäus is Aramaic and means "son of Tolmai" (= son of the furrower). Originally the apostle Bartholomäus is meant . A German variant is Barthel .

בִנְיָמִין

The name Benjamin comes from the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. There he describes the youngest of the twelve sons of Jacob, who are considered to be the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel: Benjamin (Bible) . In Hebrew it means "son of my right hand" or "child of fortune", "son of happiness", "son of consolation". The last interpretation follows the self-declaration of Gen 35: 16-20, according to which the father Jacob called his youngest child that when his mother Rachel died in his birth.

C.

Christian spread through the Acts of the Apostles as a nickname. The name is one of the first foreign names that immigrated massively into Germanic names.

D.

דניאל

Daniel , from Hebrew Daniyyel, literally means: God be my judge. The book of Daniel tells the story of the prophet Daniel in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible.

דָּוִד

The original Hebrew form of David is "Dawidh", the beloved, darling (of God). The written origin of the name lies in the Bible. The name David is found there over 1000 times in the Hebrew scriptures, and it refers to the second king of Israel. David is the third most frequently mentioned name in the Hebrew scriptures, next to Moses and Abraham.

דְּבוֹרָה

Debora (Deborah) is derived from the Hebrew דבורה (Dvorah), the bumblebee or the bee.

דלילה

According to the Bible, Delilah was a Philistine woman who had handed the Israelite judge Samson over to the soldiers.

E.

Ηλιας

Elias has been in use since the Middle Ages. It comes from the Old Testament prophet Elijah, who fought against the Baal cult. The name means (my) God is YHWH.

אֱלִישֶֽׁבַע

Elisabeth is derived from Hebrew אֱלִישֶֽׁבַע ['ĕlīšeḇa'] Elischebath (My God is seven). Meaning: the seven stands for perfection or also / alternately for abundance.

אֶסְתֵּר

Esther is of Persian / Hebrew origin and means star or "the shining, shining one" or "the star bearer". The name is related to the Babylonian Ishtar and the name of the Syrian / Canaanite goddess Astarte.

חוה

Eva is a female given name. In Germany, the biblical name played a role in naming as early as the Middle Ages, but only became popular after the Reformation, which is explained by the fact that the biblical Eve is considered a sinner by the Catholic Church, so that Eve cannot be a Christian name in the Catholic sense . It was only Mary as Second Eve who brought her sin out of the world again. The name comes from the Hebrew "chavva": mother of the earth or the one who gives life.

G

גַּבְרִיאֵל

Gabriel is a male given name (Hebrew "God is my hero" or "Man of God"). Name day is September 29th. One of the archangels in the Bible is named Gabriel (see Gabriel (Archangel) ).

H

חַנָּה

Hannah is the feminine form of the word chen (Hebrew חֵן, "grace", "grace"). On this basis there are further names, especially the name Johannes (Jochanan, Hebrew יוחנן with the meaning " YHWH is grace"). For its feminine form "Johanna", "Hanna" can also be a short form.

I.

עמנואל

Immanuel is a Hebrew form of the male given name Emanuel. Immanu'el means "God is with us".

J

יעל

Jael (also Jaël or Yael) is the Hebrew word for the Nubian ibex (Capra Ibex Nubiana) and is mentioned as such several times in the Bible (e.g. Ps 104.18  EU , 1 Sam 24.2  EU , Job 39, 1  EU ). From the root of the word, the word means to ascend, to seek refuge in the highest, to bring benefit . Furthermore, it is the name of a biblical figure who appears at the time of the judges ( Ri 4.17-22  EU , Ri 5.6  EU , Ri 5.24  EU ).

יעקב

Jakob , Jakobus or Jacobus is the Latinized form of the Hebrew name יעקב (Ja'aqob, Jakob). The name tradition goes back to the biblical patriarch Jacob (Gen 25, 23-27). The original Hebrew form of this name is יעקב (Ja'aqob), the etymological root of which is the Hebrew term עקב, "heel". The name means something like "heel holder" or literally "he ferste". The basis for this meaning is the Old Testament story, according to which Jacob clung to the heel of his twin brother Esau (the firstborn) when he was born (Gen 25, 26). The New Testament knows several people with the name Jacob, who appears there in the Greek form Ιάκωβος.

יהושע

The name Jesus is the Latinized form of Ιησους in the ancient Greek Koiné. Ιησους in turn translates the Hebrew-Aramaic first name Yehoshua with its short forms Jeschua, Jeschu or Josua . In Germany, "Jesus" was not allowed as a first name for a long time. In 1998 the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court ruled, also with regard to international customs, that the parents' wish to give a child this name should not be refused by the registry offices.

יוחנן

John is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yochanan (יוחנן) and means "the LORD (YHWH) is gracious" or "the LORD has shown grace". To be understood in Judaism as an expression of a birth viewed as a gift.

יהויכין

Jehoiachin (also: Jechonjah and Joachim, short form: Konja (cf. Esther 2: 6; Jeremiah 28: 4; 37: 1) was king of Judah as successor to his father Jehoiakim. The name means in Hebrew: the LORD (JHWH) ( has attached .

יונה

Jonas comes from the Hebrew Jona / Jonah Taube, the peace-loving.

יוֹסֵף

Joseph , also Joseph (Hebrew iosef = God adds) is a biblical first name. In the Arabic-speaking world, the name Yusuf, which corresponds to Joseph, is used.

יהודית

Judit comes from the Hebrew (Jehudit) and means Judean (woman from Judea) or Jewess. The best known is the protagonist of the book named after her Judit .

L.

לֵאָה

Lea or Leah is a female given name. It comes from the Hebrew (manatee, the in vain struggling or the tired one). The biblical Leah is one of the four patriarchs of the people of Israel.

Λουκάς

The author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Bible is traditionally referred to as the Evangelist Luke . He is counted among the three synoptics.

Λυδία

Lydia means: "the one from Lydia"; in the Bible, Lydia was a Greek who worked as a purple dealer. She lived in the city of Thyatyra and was converted by the Apostle Paul, making her one of the first Christians in Europe. She immediately accepted Paul and his companions into her home and is therefore also a symbol of hospitality.

M.

Magdalena comes from ancient Greek that comes from Magdala (place on the Sea of ​​Galilee, can be translated as "tower").

The name Maria comes from the Aramaic or Hebrew Mirjam, the name of the prophetess and sister of Moses in the Old Testament. In Greek there is the intermediate form Mariam (see Aramaic pronunciation), where Maria is a Greco-Latin name modification. Because of the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as "Mother of God", the use of a personal name was for centuries in Christian areas as a profanation and was avoided (see also Marian veneration and life of Mary). It was not until the 16th century that the name found more widespread use as a female first name (in the 19th century also as a male part of the first name).

Mark is a New Testament figure and the author of the Gospel of Mark. The origin of the name is Roman (see Markus (first name) )

מרתא

Martha is Hebrew (מרתא Martâ) and means "the mistress" or "the mistress".

Matthias is a short form of the biblical name (Greek) Mattathias or (Hebrew) Mattithiah, which means gift of God or gift of the Lord. This in turn is derived from the Hebrew name Mattitjahu, which means given by YHWH. Matthias is also often associated with Matthew. But Matthew comes from the Greek name Maththaíos. However, this distinction between Matthias and Matthew does not exist in every language. For example, Matthias and Matthew are often translated uniformly with Matthew in English.

מיכאל

The first name Michael comes from Hebrew and means "Who is like God?" In the sense of "No one is like God". The figure of St. Michael the Archangel , whose character is to be directed against anyone who questions God's position, is considered to be the origin of this name.

מִרְיָם

Miriam is the Aramaic or Hebrew original form of the Greco-Latin name modification Maria. In the Bible, the older sister of Moses, who is also a prophetess, bears this name. Maria, the mother of Jesus, is named after her and probably pronounced her name Miriam or Mariam herself. Maria Magdalena, the disciple of Jesus, was actually called Miriam or Mirjam. Magdalena stands for the place near the Sea of ​​Galilee, from which it comes (Greek: Magdala, Hebrew: Migdal). With all its modifications, this name is the most common female first name in the German-speaking world. The meaning of this name is not completely clear, however. It could be derived from the Hebrew term “mirjam” for bitterness and from the Egyptian “mry” for beloved or “merit-amun” (Amun's beloved). Furthermore, the form “Mirjam” is a participle of the Hebrew verb “stand up, rise”, meaning “the exalted” according to this derivation. Broken down into its Hebrew components, Mir-jam means "drop of the sea" (cf. Stella Maris). However, the name is also known with a different meaning, accordingly "Miriam" also means "The untamed". In Chinese, Miriam also means "the beautiful, stubborn, elegant and fearless".

N

נעמי

Noemi (Hebrew נעמי: Noomi, Naomi and others vocalizations) is a biblical female given name, which is modified many times in different languages. In Hebrew it meant: "the lovely one". In the book of Ruth of the Tanach, Noemie is the mother-in-law of Ruth and thus the great-great-grandmother of King David.

P

Paulus (Latin for "small", Greek Paulos) is the name of the apostle Paul of Tarsus . Often the short form is Paul .

Peter is of Greek origin (petros) and means rock in the sense of boulder. The grown rock is called petra in Greek. In the Jesus word, Matthew 16:18, both terms appear side by side as a play on words: You are “Petros” (boulder), and I want to build my church on “Petra” (grown rock). The feminine form of the name is Petra .

Philip is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus (Matthew 10: 3). Philip was called directly by Jesus to follow him (John 1:43). It is he who passed on what he had experienced to Nathanael. Often the short form is Philip .

R.

רחל

Rachel (Hebrew [ra: 'χe: l]), also Racquel, Rahel [ˈraː.ɛl], is a female given name. It comes from Hebrew and roughly means ewe. The biblical Rachel belongs to the four patriarchs of the people of Israel and, as a mother, has an ambivalent role in Jewish theology: she dies at the birth of her son Ben-Oni (son of misfortune), whom Jacob immediately after the birth in son of happiness , so Ben-Jamin renamed (Genesis 35: 16-19). The biblical Rachel was the daughter of Laban, Jacob's favorite wife and mother of his sons Benjamin and Joseph.

רבקה

Rebekah (Hebrew רבקה Rivkah , the enticing, the captivating, the well-fed, also Rebecca, Rebecka) is a biblical person of the Old Testament. She is one of the four patriarchs of the people of Israel and, as the mother of Jacob, also in the family tree of Jesus. She lived around 2000 BC BC, came from Nahur near Haran and was the great niece of Abraham. He had them brought from the old homeland for his son Isaac so that he would not have to marry any of the pagan Canaanite women (Genesis 24). The scene in which Abraham's messenger - often identified with Eliezer from Genesis 15: 2 - found the right one at a well (the one that gave him to drink after a prophecy) was often depicted in art.

Reuben comes from the Bible and in Hebrew means something like Sehet, a son .

Ruth means friendship or beauty in Hebrew.

S.

שלומית

Salome comes from the Hebrew "Solomon": the peaceful.

שמואל

The derivation of the name Samuel from the Hebrew (there the name is Schmu'el) is quite problematic, although the Bible itself gives an explanation in 1.Sam.1: 20: “And it gave him the name Schmu'el, because of YHWH I asked him. ”The word for request is“ Scha'al ”, the passive participle of it is“ Scha'ul ”. The common name for God is "El". The “M” in the name Schmu'el could be explained in German with the preposition “von”. Seen in this way, the whole name is actually an artificial word with which one wants to express: "Requested by God". And that's what his mother Hanna said.

שָׂרָה

Sara or Sarah goes back to the biblical person Sarai, Abraham's wife, who was renamed by God Sarah or Sarah; see Sara (archmother) . In the period of National Socialism from 1938 onwards, all Jewish women and girls were forced to also take the name Sara.

שמעון

The name Simon comes from the Bible and has the form Simeon there. In the Old Testament he designates the progenitor of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, in the New Testament a pious Israelite who is the first to recognize the promised Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth.

Stephan / Stefan is the short form of the name Stephanus . This is of Greek origin and means The Crowned . Stephen was stoned around the year 40 AD and is considered the first Christian martyr (cf. Acts 6-7 ).

שושנה

Susanne is of Hebrew origin ("Shoshanah") and means the lily. In the Gospel of Luke (8: 1-3) Susanna is mentioned as a disciple of Jesus. The book of Daniel also tells of a Susanna.

T

Tabea

Tabea comes from the Aramaic Tabitha meaning: the gazelle, cf. Acts 9:36.

תאומא

The name Thomas comes from Aramaic (תאומא te'oma ) and means twin. Name popular since the Middle Ages through the veneration of St. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. The term "unbelieving Thomas", which is still used pejoratively today, goes back to the apostle because, according to New Testament tradition, he initially doubted the resurrection of Jesus until he was allowed to see the wounds of the risen Christ himself and was the only one to touch them (Jn 20: 19-29) .

תוביז

Tobias is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Tobijah / Tobijahu (tobijjah "God is good", "YHWH is good", "The Lord is my good", "The good", "God is gracious", "God is good") . This name is derived from Tobias (son of Tobit), from "The Book of Tobit", an apocryphal or deuterocanonical book of the Old Testament. There Tobias is the pious son of a blind father. The archangel Raphael accompanies Tobias on his journey, takes care of him and helps him to heal his father from blindness.

Y

יעל

Yael (also Jaël or Jael) is the Hebrew word for the Nubian Ibex (Capra Ibex Nubiana) and is mentioned as such several times in the Bible (e.g. Ps 104.18  EU , 1 Sam 24.2  EU , Job 39, 1  EU ). From the root of the word, the word means to ascend, to seek refuge in the highest, to bring benefit . It is also the name of a biblical woman who appears at the time of the judges ( Ri 4.17-22  EU , Ri 5.6  EU , Ri 5.24  EU ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Kunze : dtv-Atlas onenology. First and last names in the German-speaking area (=  dtv-Atlas . Volume 2490 ). 1st edition. 1998, ISBN 3-423-03266-9 , Christian / Christina , p. 33 .