Hebrew boy names
No other language supplies as much of the American top 100. Close to a third of the current U.S. top 100 is Hebrew at root, and a surprising number of those names are not words but sentences: Michael asks a question, Daniel states a verdict, Isaiah makes a promise. Below are the ones parents actually use, with the grammar behind them explained.
Hebrew names in the U.S. top 100
Eighteen of the strongest performers, in current SSA order. Joshua, Ezekiel, Josiah, Caleb, Nathan, Micah, Aaron and Jeremiah are inside the top 100 too — the Hebrew share of that list is large enough that a page like this has to choose.
- #2NoahNOH-uhHebrew
Rest, repose; by extension, comfort. The ark-builder, and the name that led the U.S. list for four straight years.
- #6JamesJAYMZHebrew
Traditionally glossed as supplanter. The English form of Jacob, reshaped by Late Latin Iacomus.
- #7Elijahih-LY-juhHebrew
My God is Yahweh — a declaration of loyalty aimed squarely at the prophets of Baal.
- #11BenjaminBEN-juh-minHebrew
Son of the right hand; son of the favoured side. Jacob's youngest.
- #12LeviLEE-vyeHebrew
Joined, attached. The tribe that supplied Israel's priests, and so the root of the word Levite.
- #18SamuelSAM-yoo-ulHebrew
God has heard. The child his mother asked for, and the prophet who anointed two kings.
- #20EzraEZ-ruhHebrew
Help; traditionally read as an abbreviation of "God has helped". Two syllables, no nickname needed.
- #21MichaelMY-kulHebrew
Who is like God — a rhetorical question, not a boast. The #1 U.S. boy name every year from 1954 to 1998.
- #22DanielDAN-yulHebrew
God is my judge. A complete sentence in two words, and a fixture of the top 30 for half a century.
- #23JohnJONHebrew
Yahweh is gracious. From Yochanan, and the single most widely borrowed name in Europe.
- #24EthanEE-thunHebrew
Firm, enduring, steadfast. An adjective rather than a sentence — rare among Hebrew names.
- #28AsherASH-erHebrew
Happy, fortunate. One of the twelve tribes, and the warmest-sounding name on this list.
- #29JosephJOH-zifHebrew
He will add; may God add another child. A wish for a sibling, fossilised into a name.
- #35DavidDAY-vidHebrew
Traditionally glossed as beloved. The shepherd king, and a name shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
- #37GabrielGAY-bree-ulHebrew
God is my strength. The archangel who does the announcing.
- #43JacobJAY-kubHebrew
He grasps the heel; supplanter. Held the U.S. top spot from 1999 to 2012.
- #47IsaacEYE-zikHebrew
He laughs. Named for Sarah's reaction to being told she would have a son at ninety.
- #57Isaiaheye-ZAY-uhHebrew
Yahweh is salvation. The same statement as Joshua, assembled from the same two parts in the other order.
Traditional Hebrew names
Older, plainer, and mostly outside the current U.S. top 100 — but every one of them has been in continuous use for well over two thousand years.
- AbrahamAY-bruh-hamHebrew
Father of a multitude. Genesis renames him from Abram at the moment the covenant is made.
- AdamAD-umHebrew
Man; from adamah, the ground. The pun is the point — the earthling made of earth.
- MosesMOH-zizHebrew
Drawn out of the water, on the Hebrew reading; on the competing one, an Egyptian element meaning "child of".
- SolomonSOL-uh-munHebrew
Peace; peaceable. Built on shalom, and borne by the king who did not go to war.
- JonahJOH-nuhHebrew
Dove — the bird, plainly and literally. One of the few Hebrew names that is simply a noun.
- JudahJOO-duhHebrew
Praised. The tribe that gave its name to Judea, and so to the word Jew.
- EliEE-lyeHebrew
Ascent, height — or "my God", when it is standing in for Elijah. Two names in one spelling.
- BoazBOH-azHebrew
Traditionally read as swiftness, or as "in him is strength". Also the name of one of the two pillars of Solomon's temple.
- GideonGID-ee-unHebrew
Hewer; one who cuts down. A name with an axe in it, borne by the judge who felled his father's altar.
Names built on El and Yah
A great many biblical male names are theophoric: they carry a divine element and read as short sentences. El is God — the same element in Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician and Arabic. Yah or yahu is the personal name of the God of Israel, and it can sit at either end of a name. That single fact decodes half the Hebrew Bible: Micha-el is "who is like God", Dani-el is "God is my judge", Eli-yahu is "my God is Yahweh", Yesha-yahu is "Yahweh is salvation". Nine more built the same way.
- UrielYOOR-ee-elHebrew
God is my light. An archangel in the extra-canonical books, and the tidiest of the El names.
- Nathanielnuh-THAN-yulHebrew
God has given. Compare Jonathan, which is the same verb with Yah instead of El.
- Rafaelrah-fah-ELHebrew
God has healed. The archangel of healing, and the commonest El name in the Spanish-speaking world.
- JoelJOH-elHebrew
Yahweh is God. Both elements at once — Yo- at the front, El at the back.
- Emmanuelih-MAN-yoo-elHebrew
God is with us. A sign given in Isaiah rather than an ordinary given name, until Christianity made it one.
- IsraelIZ-ray-elHebrew
Glossed in Genesis as "he struggles with God" — the name Jacob is given after wrestling until dawn.
- Obadiahoh-buh-DY-uhHebrew
Servant of Yahweh. The shortest book in the Hebrew Bible belongs to him.
- Zachariahzak-uh-RYE-uhHebrew
Yahweh has remembered. The fuller spelling behind Zachary.
- Tobiastuh-BY-usHebrew
God is good — Tobiyah, with the Yah at the end, arriving in English through Greek.
How Hebrew naming works
Jewish naming practice splits along one clean line. Ashkenazi families, the Yiddish-speaking communities of central and eastern Europe, name a child only after a relative who has died, so the name carries a memory forward and never doubles up with someone at the table. Sephardi and Mizrahi families do the opposite, honouring a living grandparent — which is why a Sephardi boy may well meet the man he is named for. The two customs pull in different directions but produce the same result: a deliberately small pool of names, recycled on purpose, generation after generation.
A boy is formally given his Hebrew name at the brit milah on the eighth day, and that name — the shem ha-kodesh, the sacred name — is patronymic in use. Called up to the Torah he is simply "[name] ben [his father's name]", with no surname anywhere in it. Most of the names on this page therefore lead a double life: Michael and Mikha'el, Isaac and Yitzhak, Moses and Moshe, one form for the birth certificate and one for the synagogue. For how the same stock travelled into Greek, Latin and Arabic, see the other pages under names by origin.