Bible names for babies: meaning and where each one appears

A biblical name is a word with a documented history: a Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin form, a meaning that can be checked in a lexicon, and a chapter where somebody wore it. That is what this article gives. What it does not give is any claim that a name shapes a life — the Bible provides no support for that idea, and the people in it whose names mean wonderful things turned out in every direction.

How to read the tables

Each row has the name, the original form, the meaning, and the place in the text. Where scholars disagree about an origin, the row says disputed rather than picking one. That happens more often than name lists usually admit, including for names as common as Mary.

Names for boys

Names for girls

Names worth reading the chapter for first

Some biblical names sound attractive and carry a story most parents would want to know about beforehand. This is not advice against them; it is a suggestion to read the passage.

• Delilah — the woman who betrays Samson, Judges 16.
• Jezebel — a queen the books of Kings treat as the model of a bad ruler, 1 Kings 18.
• Judas — the same name as Judah, and borne by more than one New Testament figure, but the association is fixed in English.
• Herod — a family name, and every Herod in the New Testament is an antagonist.
• Cain and Nimrod — both carry associations from their chapters, Genesis 4 and Genesis 10, that outlived the chapters.
• Tamar — a beautiful name attached to two of the hardest stories in the Bible, in Genesis 38 and 2 Samuel 13.

Names people think are biblical and are not

• Nevaeh — heaven spelled backwards, coined in the United States in the twenty-first century. Not a biblical word.
• Trinity — a theological term developed by the early church. The word does not appear in the Bible.
• Genesis, Eden, Jordan, Carmel, Sharon, Bethany, Zion — real biblical words, but places and book titles, not people's names in the text.
• Makayla, Jayden, Kaden — modern names, sometimes marketed as biblical variants. Michael and Michaela have biblical roots; the respellings do not add any.

One last thing about meanings

Choose a name because you like it, because it belongs to someone in your family, or because you like the story attached to it. Do not choose it because a site told you it programs a destiny. The Bible has a man whose name means praise proposing to sell his brother, and a woman who asks to be renamed bitter and ends the book holding her grandson. Meanings are interesting. They are not prophecies.

For the fuller list with the original forms and where the Bible explains a name in its own text, see the meaning of Bible names.