I. Form of Proper Names. — The first fact that strikes us, on a general view of them all, is that the ancient Hebrews always retained the greatest simplicity in the use of names. In reality there is always only one sin- gle name which distinguishes a person. Where it is necessary, the name of the father is added ; sometimes that of the mother instead, in case she happens to be more celebrated (thus the three heroic brothers, Joab, Abishai, and Asael, are always called after their mother Zerujah [1 Chron. ii, 16]) ; or the line of descent is traced further back, often to the fourth generation, or even further. Mere epithets, like " David the king," " Isaiah the prophet," always express the actual and significant dignity of a man. The instances in which a person re- ceives two names alternately, as Jacob-Israel, Gideon- Jerubbaal (Judg. vi-ix), are casual and rare, and are not to be ascribed to a general custom of the people.
1. The simple names exist in great abundance; and their signification, as to the mere word itself, is gener- ally evident: as "^, Dan, "judge;" "pS^, Jamin, the Latin dexter, an ancient name, according to Gen. xlvi, 10; 1 Chron. ii, 27; bwj, Saul, "desired," also an an- cient name, according to Gen. xlvi, 10; comp. xxxvi, 37 ; "Ca, Geber, " hero" (1 Kings iv, 19). Thus most of them express an honorable sense ; although examples are not wanting of the direct contrary, as HJi"=>35, Ikkesh, " crooked" (2 Sam. xxiii, 2G). With what ease also fem- inine words become names for men is shown by cases like i"!*X. Aiah, "vulture" (iii, 7; xxi, 8; comp. Gen. xxxvi, 24) ; i"l3"P, Jonah, " clove," which are just as ap- plicable to men as the masculine b^'Vi", Shual, "fox" (1 Chron. vii, 36). Diminutives, which are so fre- quently used as proper names by the Arabs, are rare among the Hebrews; but are by no means wanting, as is proved by "j'IP'CT or "jp^Dt, Zebulun, the name of the son of Jacob, and *WH^ or "jW"''!"], Jedithun, the name of the singer of David. All those names which are formed with a prefixed yod are to be considered as espe- cially ancient, because this nominal formation became entirely obsolete in the language, and recurs almost only in proper names, as is shown not only by the well- known names "p""1, Jacob, t{0*\"', Joseph, i~l'Tl^',, Ju- dah. pn^"1, Isaac, but also by a number of less common ones, as Mia'"-, Jashub (Numb, xxvi, 24); Sl'V), Jarib (1 Chron. iv, 24) ; Ttf^, Jamlech (ver. 34) ; "jS??, Ja- chan (v, 13) ; *lS;2^ Izhar (Exod. vi, 18) ; irG"1, Ibhar (2 Sam. v, 15); T\IZ^, Jephunneh (Numb, xiii, 6; 1 Chron. vii, 38) ; brVP, Jeroham (1 Sam. i, 1 ; 1 Chron. viii, 27); and others. There is an ancient adjective-
ending, that in dm or 6m, which has fixed itself most firmly in proper names, as C-TP1X, Ahuzzam (1 Chron. iv, 6) : t)T5, Gazzam (Ezra ii, 48)'; C^TQ, Miriam, the sister of Moses, and 01123*13, Gershom, his son; CfT>22, Chimham (2 Sam. xix, 38), which not only exists also in the form DltTCS, Chimhom (Jer. xlii, 17), but in *n*23, Chimhan (2 Sam. xix, 40), according to custom- ary changes.
2. The compound names, however, are more impor- tant for history, because they express more complete and distinct ideas than the simple names. Some of them are altogether isolated, as GHi^S, Phinehas, prop- erly " serpent's mouth," the grandson of Aaron ; ":iw1, Issachar, the son of Jacob; Oholiab (Exod. xxxi, 6), " father's tent," a name resembling the Greek Patroclus. But most of them bear a general resemblance to each other, and follow in shoals certain dominant opinions and customs ; and these last are what we must particu- larly consider here.
A great number of them owe their origin to the re- lations of the house, as the sense of the first word of the compound shows. Most of these have the word "12X, abi, "father," for their first member, as Abiezer, Abital, A bigail. Fiirst (Handworlerbuch, p. 7, 50) regards these words as names for the Divine Being, rendering such a name as Abimelek, Ab (i. e. God) is king; Abidan, Ab (God) is judge; and so Achitub, Ach (God) is good. Others deny any reference to the Deity in these words, but cannot agree whether they are to be taken literally or figuratively. The Easterns use the word ab (fa- ther), etc., to express the possession of any quality. The fox is abu 'Ikusain ("father of the little fort," i. e. the burrower). The mosquito is abu 'Ifa 's (" father of the axe"), from its sharp instrument of incision. The camel is abu ayyub (" father of Job"), from his patience. Many therefore think that such a name as Abinoam (" father of kindness") means merely very kind. Others, as Ewald, regard the words ab. ach, ben, etc., as at least at one time expressive of real relationship, and think such names exhibit an approach to our family names. It sometimes happens that a person appears with the name both in its simple as well as its compound state. For example, Nadab, as well as Abinadab, Ezer and Abiezer, and Abner (" father of Ner") was son of Ner. This seems to imply that something like the present Arabic practice had begun to prevail among the He- brews. Certain names become hereditary in a family, and a man is expected to name his son by the tradi- tional name. To such an extent is this custom carried that a man whose son should have been called " Yusuf" is styled "Abu Yusuf," even if he has no son; and a woman who is childless rejoices in the name Umm Musa ("Mother of Moses"), because, had she had a son, he would have borne the name " Musa." In all likelihood these words, ab, etc., have not always the same meaning; the connective vowel i is not always a sign of the genitive, but merely of the construct or state of composition. We could more easily admit a meta- phorical sense in the compounds with son, since "2 is really often used in a highly metaphorical sense. Bath- sheba' is certainly not the daughter of a man named She'ba' (2 Sam. xi, 3). Such compound names with son, however, are, on the whole, rare, and are only found in some frequency in 1 Kings iv, 7 sq. See Ab- ; Bex-.