Naming Children
NAMING OF CHILDREN The Arabs are fond of compounding the name of Allah into the name given their children. It was a very common custom for the Hebrews to include a name for GOD as a part of their children's names.A few samples of such Hebrew names are here given together with their meanings: Abijah - "Whose father GOD is" Ahaziah - "Held by JEHOVAH" Azariah - "Helped by JEHOVAH" Obadiah - "Servant of JEHOVAH" Daniel - "GOD is my Judge" Elijah - "My GOD is JEHOVAH" Elkanah - "Whom GOD created" Ezekiel - "GOD will strengthen" Another custom was practiced by Jews in naming their sons. After the birth of the first son, the father and mother were known as the father of so-and-so, and the mother of so-and-so. And the son added the father's first name after his own. Thus JESUS spoke of Peter as, "Simon Barjona" (Matthew 16:17), which means, "Simon, son of Jona." The Arabs giving such a name today would simply omit the word "son" and call the child "Simon Jona." Sometimes Jews had double names in CHRIST's time. This was true of Thomas. John's Gospel refers to him as, "Thomas, which is called Didymus" (John 11:16). Both of these names mean "a twin." The name "Thomas" was Aramaic, and the name "Didymus" was Greek. When traveling in foreign countries, Jews often assumed a Greek, or Latin, or other name, which had a meaning similar to their own. Jewish names given to girls, were often taken from beautiful objects in nature, or pleasant graces of character were used. "Bible examples are Jemima (dove), Tabitha or Dorcas (gazelle), Rhoda (rose), Rachel (lamb), Salome (peace), Deborah (bee), Esther (star)." Naomi told the Bethlehem women, "Call me not Naomi, call me Marah." Our Bible margins give the meanings of these names thus: "Call me not, Pleasant, call me Bitter" (Ruth 1:20). [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]