Life
Call me Isaac: the popular legacy of biblical names
The latest list of favourite names in the UK reveals many of Hebrew origin
October 28, 2021 16:17
The latest list of favourite names in the UK reveals many of Hebrew origin
October 28, 2021 16:17Such is the waning knowledge of the Bible in modern times that in 2015 Oxford University felt it necessary, in an entrance test for applicants in history, to include a footnote explaining what the “Book of Genesis” was.
While the stories of the Bible may be less familiar than they once were, the ancient text, in at least one respect, still leaves its imprint on our culture: the names given to children. In the latest lists of the most popular 100 names for boys and girls in the UK — which were recently released by the Office for National Statistics — 20 of those for boys and 10 for girls had their origins in the Hebrew Bible. It is not surprising that there are more biblical names among boys — simply because there are many more to choose from.
Noah was the fourth most popular British boy’s name in 2020, followed by Jacob (19) and Isaac (21). The first patriarch Abraham fails to appear, though the Islamic Ibrahim is in at 98. For girls, Evie (18) and Eva (35) were the highest placed biblical names.
Of course, it depends on what counts as “biblical”: for example, whether you include Eliza (43) and Elizabeth (56) as derivatives of Aaron’s wife Elisheva, or Ada, which is the name of wives of both Lemech and Esau, though the name today may have an alternative, Germanic origin. Zachary (56) can be taken as an abbreviation of Zechariah and Toby (62) of Tobiah. Tobiah the Ammonite pops up in the Book of Nehemiah, though the apocryphal book of Tobias (or Tobit) is the likelier source.
Nevertheless, and perhaps unexpectedly, biblical names feature more than they did than half a century ago. If you compare the ONS top 100s for 1964, there are just eight apiece for boys and girls.
Comparing the earlier list with the later, what is striking is that there is no place now for Sarah, Rachel or Deborah, whereas Hannah (75) and Abigail (87) make it in 2020: even more common is Delilah (62), not a name Jewish parents are likely to bestow on their daughter.
While the names of some of the best-known biblical characters remain perennial for boys — such as Joseph (38) or David (60) — now you also find Ethan (36) and Ezra (59). Ethan is hardly among the Bible’s big-hitters and even many shul-goers might struggle to identify where he makes his entrance: Ethan the Ezrahite is author of Psalm 89, who is name-checked in l Kings 5:11 and presumably is the same Ethan who played cymbals in David’s court (I Chronicles 15: 20).
Ethan probably owes its presence to the influence to American celebrity culture: the actor Ethan Hawke, for example, or Ethan Hunt, hero of the Mission Impossible films (played by Tom Cruise).
In the United States, there is a much broader legacy of biblical names, hence Jared Kushner, ex-President Trump’s son-in-law. Jared is the great-great-great grandson of Adam who appears in one of the early catalogues of biblical begettings.
The rising frequency of Elon in the USA is undoubtedly due to the South-African born, US entrepreneur Elon Musk. In the Bible Elon is variously the name of a father-in-law of Esau, a son of Zebulun and one of the Judges whose rule could not have been terribly eventful since the Bible only recalls that he lived and died. (Though Elon used mainly as a girl’s name has both Greek and African precedents).
Beyond the general culture, Jewish communities have their own naming trends. The emergence of modern Israel has led to the revival of the names of minor characters from all over the Bible: for example Ehud — as in former Prime Minister Ehud Barak — slayer of the obese King of Moab, Eglon, or Yair, another judge, or Achinoam, a wife of Saul — as in the singer Achinoam Nini — or Noa, one of the daughters of Zelophehad.
Then within more Orthodox circles you may well come across a Gershon, name of the eldest son of Levi, or Chanoch (Enoch). Chanoch has a walk-on part early in Genesis, or rather a walk-off part, for he is mysteriously “taken” by God — according to the Midrash, whisked to heaven like Elijah and transformed into the fiery angel Metatron, like a biblical equivalent of the superhero Human Torch.
Names in the Bible are often unique — though you can find more than one Deborah, Saul or Joshua — but Chanoch is unusually popular: in the Torah, it is also the name of a son of Cain, who honours his child by calling the first city after him; of a grandson of Abraham; and of a son of Reuben.
Boys called Hillel are named after the great talmudic sage but he has a biblical antecdent too: Hillel, father of the judge Avidan. Evidently, there were naming fashions among the rabbis; you will find Rabbi Joshua’s and Jose’s (a diminutive of Joseph) in the Talmud, but no Rabbi Moses until medieval times.
There can hardly be a more quintessentially Jewish-sounding name than Yehudit (whose English equivalent Judith was in the ONS top 100 list in 1964). While she is heroine of the apocryphal book later associated with Chanukah, she has a biblical namesake, who happens not to be Jewish; she is one of the Canaanite wives of Esau that so displeased his parents.
Her sole appearance is in next week’s sidrah, Toldot, which records Esau marrying Yehudit, daughter of Be’eri the Hittite, and Basmat, daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Two sedarot later, Yehudit has vanished and the lengthy family tree lists Esau’s wives as Ada, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibama, daughter of Ana; and Basmat, daughter of Ishmael (rather than Elon as before). It is the kind of conundrum that excites academic textual critics but that’s another story.
