Hebrew2 syllablesBiblical
Meaning: traditionally glossed as swiftness, or as in him is strength.
Boaz
| Origin | Hebrew, from the Book of Ruth |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Uncertain. Traditionally glossed as swiftness, or read as bo + oz, in him is strength. Neither reading is secure |
| Pronunciation | BOH-az in English; Hebrew speakers say it closer to bo-AZ |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and never common in English, but steady in observant Jewish families and entirely ordinary in Israel |
| Variants | Boas, Booz (the Greek and Latin form in older Bibles); the German-Jewish surname Boas comes from the same name |
| Nicknames | Bo, Boz |
| Biblical role | Ruth's kinsman-redeemer and the great-grandfather of King David |
History & meaning
Boaz belongs to the Book of Ruth, and the story is the reason to consider the name. Ruth is a Moabite widow who follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem with nothing. Boaz is the landowner in whose field she gleans, and he notices her, feeds her, protects her from his own workers and then takes on the role of go'el, the kinsman-redeemer obliged to buy back a relative's land and preserve the family line. He marries her. Their son Obed fathers Jesse, and Jesse fathers David, which places Boaz in the ancestry of Israel's greatest king and, in Matthew's gospel, of Jesus. Read plainly, it is a story about a powerful man behaving decently towards a foreigner with no claim on him.
The meaning is less tidy than the story. Hebrew reference works do not agree on the root, and the two glosses in circulation are traditional interpretations rather than settled linguistics. One is swiftness. The other splits the name as bo plus oz, in him is strength, a reading encouraged by the fact that Boaz is also the name of one of the two bronze pillars that stood at the porch of Solomon's Temple in the first Book of Kings, its twin being Jachin. Pillar names invite sentence readings. Take either gloss with the qualification attached. In English the name stayed rare, surfacing occasionally in Puritan-era registers alongside other Old Testament rarities, while modern Hebrew revival made it a completely normal choice in Israel.
Why parents choose it
It is an Old Testament name that the Old Testament revival has not yet exhausted. Boaz has the Z that parents currently want, a two-beat rhythm, a ready-made short form in Bo, and a namesake whose defining quality is decency rather than conquest. It reads as unmistakably Hebrew without being difficult for an English speaker to say.
Middle names for Boaz
Keep the Hebrew line or break it cleanly, but do not half-commit: Boaz Elias, Boaz Samuel, Boaz Ari, Boaz Levi. Avoid middles beginning with a vowel, which run into the final Z. The middle names guide has more.
Famous Boazes
Boaz Yakin wrote and directed the 1994 film Fresh and directed Remember the Titans. The Israeli singer Boaz Mauda won the talent show Kokhav Nolad and represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. The biblical Boaz remains the reference point for both, and the anthropologist Franz Boas carried the same name, in its German spelling, as a surname.
Consider instead
For the same Old Testament weight with far wider acceptance, Ezra now sits at #20 in the U.S. Asa is shorter, also Hebrew, and still outside the top 100 if rarity is the point. Micah keeps the prophetic register and the soft opening, and ranks #90.