Biblical names

The annual list of popular baby names from the Social Security Administration is chock full of biblical names on the boy's side -- 13 out of the top 20. Less so on the girl's side -- only six of the top 20.

Inspired by that imbalance, I present the following.

7 biblical women's names that deserve wider usage:

1. Tirzah. This name has never cracked the SSA's Top 1,000 list -- not even after it was used in the movie Ben Hur. That's a shame, because Tirzah was an impressive woman (see "Hoglah" below).

2. Jael. You meet plenty of people named after Mary, the other biblical character praised as "most blessed of women," but I've never met or even heard of anyone named after Jael. Maybe it's because the name translates, literally, as "mountain goat." Or maybe it's because "bad-ass" isn't what most parents are looking for in a name for their baby girl. Jael was bad-ass. She took out Sisera, the general in charge of the invading army:

Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple -- dead.

Don't mess with Jael.

3. Deborah. If we're going to mention Jael, we also need to mention Deborah -- the other heroine of this story from the book of Judges, which is all about the men dithering and the women bailing them out with real courage and leadership (and tent pegs).

4. Sophia. This actually cracked the Top 10 last year for girl's names. It's a Greek name, but I've linked it there to Proverbs 8, which certainly wasn't written in Greek. That passage is a hymn in praise of Wisdom, which is what Sophia means, making it, arguably, a divine name, a name for an aspect of God.

5. Susanna. Steven Foster may have knocked this name out of favor by forcing a connotation of banjos on knees, but it's still a lovely name. Susanna was one of Jesus' earliest disciples and -- unlike those freeloaders Peter, James and John -- she paid her own way: "helping to support them out of their own means."

6. Phoebe. The NIV calls Phoebe a "servant" of the Roman church. Everywhere else that term is used it is translated "deacon," but the translators didn't like the idea of a woman as a deacon so, in this one case, they changed it to "servant," with a guilty footnote suggesting "or deaconess." That's a made-up word, too, "deacon-ess." The problem with the name nowadays is it's probably associated more with Friends than with the first-century church leader. (I liked Lisa Kudrow's wifty character, but that's not quite the set of connotations I'm looking for here.)

7. Priscilla. The translation games used to demote most of the female leaders (like Phoebe, above) in the early church didn't work with Priscilla since she's almost always mentioned as part of a tag-team with her husband, Aquila. They couldn't very well twist the translation to refer to both of them as "deaconesses" or some such. Paul regarded them, both of them, as his peers. Priscilla is also thought by some to be the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, which is as good a guess as any. The downside: Ever been to Graceland?

7 biblical women's names to avoid:

1. Leah. "Leah was not loved," the book of Genesis tells us. And she was horribly misused, treated as a pawn by her father and her husband. Even the translators of the New International Version pile on. "Leah had weak eyes," Gen. 29:17 says, although the footnote suggests that "weak" there might also be translated "delicate." But they just had to go with "weak," didn't they? That's how everybody treated Leah, poor woman. Leah is a beautiful name, but this is a pretty rough set of connotations to saddle your daughter with.

2. Jezebel. If they were casting a movie of the books of Kings, this is the part that every actress would want, but it's not a popular girls name for the same reason that Lady Macbeth is not a popular girls name.

3. Sapphira. She and her husband figured out a scheme that would let them keep much of their wealth while still reaping praise and credit for giving all of it away. The scheme didn't quite work out the way they planned. So not a great role model. Plus, you'd pretty much be dooming your daughter to work as an exotic dancer.

4. Gomer. I love the book of Hosea. I love the portrait it paints of God waiting patiently, singing Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," more saddened than wrathful. But poor Hosea and his wife, Gomer, wind up with miserable roles to play to illustrate this divine romance. Nobody is likely to name their daughter "Gomer," of course, because of Gomer Pyle, but you'd actually be better off naming your little girl after Jim Nabors than after the biblical Gomer.

5. Lo-Ruhammah. Hosea and Gomer's daughter's name means "not loved." Again, I love the book of Hosea, but wasn't there some way to make this point without dooming this poor girl to a lifetime of therapy?

6. Noah. (see below)

7. Hoglah. Noah and Hoglah were actually very cool, admirable women -- two of Zelophehad's three daughters who fought for -- and won -- women's right to inherit and own property a few millennia before Jane Austen. Unfortunately, Noah's a bit more famous as a boy's name, and Hoglah isn't terribly euphonious (suggesting unfortunate nicknames). We can honor their spirit through the name of their sister, Tirzah, who joined them in persuading Moses that denying them their rights just because they were women was indefensible.

Comments

[cjmr]

Parents would be docked 25 class points for naming the girl after a TV character.

Except for daytime soaps. For some reason it's okay to name your children after characters on daytime soaps.

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So far, we've done the naming our children after ancestors thing, but we've run out of ancestor names that we like (except for ones that sound too similar to ones we've already used).

[Karen]

cjmr, I've noticed that bit about soap operas. If the names are Erica and Laura, that's great. THe problem is that they generally don't use the names that had an existence outside of the show.

[Izzy]

the men dithering and the women bailing them out with real courage and leadership (and tent pegs).

This, um, sounds very different if you're familiar with the Collected Batshittery of Anne McCaffery. Very, very different.

Yow.

[patter]

Zelophehad

I'm waiting to see this name make the "Top 10" list.

[histrogeek]

Didn't Lo-Ruhummah get a name change at the end of Hosea?
Someone mentioned Thecla, a personal favorite of mine among apocryphal saints. I don't think anyone includes the Acts of Paul and Thecla as part of the Scriptures, even as deutrio-cannonic, but she is revered as a saint especially in the Orthodox tradition.

[Abelardus]

FWIW, Tirzah is rather pretty.

And so it's recorded in the Song of Songs, where the lover (or Solomon) calls his beloved (the Shulamite): "lovely as Jerusalem, comely as Tirzah."

Or a sex toy.

Mmm, honey, I'm feeling experimental tonight -- why don't you shove a tent pet through my head and see if I get a thrill off it?

[Dave]

My New England Puritan ancestors really got it on with the Biblical naming in the 18th Century, giving me ancestors named Jehosephat, Medad, Jehiel, Mehitibel, Jemima and Beulah. But the ones I really like are the girls' names that seem to have been picked to encourage select female virtues, such as Experience, Chastity, Constance, Desire, and, smewhat inexplicably, Freelove. I wanted to name our daughter Submit, but my wife put her foot down. We went with Rachel instead, the little lamb.

[cjmr]

But the ones I really like are the girls' names that seem to have been picked to encourage select female virtues, such as Experience, Chastity, Constance, Desire, and, smewhat inexplicably, Freelove.

Seems to me that Experience, Desire, and Freelove engender totally different kinds of virtues as Chastity and Constance.

[Seth Gordon]

Note that (a) Tirzah was the fifth of five daughters, and (b) the Hebrew root of the name means "desired". I think her parents were tired of all their friends saying, "So, are you hoping for a boy this time?"

[Richard Hershberger]

My daughter will be two months old tomorrow. The wife and I agreed that we liked Biblical names, but she didn't like my suggestions of Jezebel or Salome. So we went with Rebecca. Except that I call her "Rivkah" while the wife goes with "Becca". I suspect that "Becca" will stick, because the wife is more stubborn than I am, with "Rivkah" being my private name for her. We are in agreement about avoiding "Becky".

[Keith]

Is there a similar prevailing custom among Orthodox and Conservative Jewish parents? I suspect that names that non-Jews might assume to be Jewish may have origins not in scripture but in Ashkenazi culture.

When I was in Grad School in DC, I met several Conservative Jewish Grad students with traditional Hebrew names. Ariel seemed very popular for Jewish boys circa 1975-1980. In reform circles Ariel usually gets truncated as just Ari (like the grandson in The Royal Tannenbaums or Ari Gold from Entourage)

a boys list of names would be fun too. Can't imagine why no one is named Obediah, Ham or Japhet anymore.

[Lauren]

I like Damaris (A Greek convert in Acts) but the name means heifer, so maybe not a good choice.

I like Sapphira, too. I'm an unchurched, Christmas-trees and Easter-eggs Christian, so when I was attending a Bible study group in college, I was almost completely unfamiliar with the Bible. We read the story of Ananias and Sapphira one night, and I thought, "I thought this religion was all about forgiveness? How fair is it for them to be struck dead without a chance to appologize?" But as I thought about it, as everyone continued talking about the importance of honesty and so forth, I came to the realization that just because the book says they fell down and died without a chance to apologize, doesn't mean it happened that way. Just because everyone assumed they were struck down by God as punishment, didn't make it true (they were propably destined for a lynching). And just because death is frightening doesn't make it bad. Peter saw Ananias and Sapphira die, but he did't know, any more than I do, what happened after.

Sapphira drove the stake into the idea of biblical inerrancy for me, and for that I'll always be a little fond of her :)

[Dave]

"Seems to me that Experience, Desire, and Freelove engender totally different kinds of virtues as Chastity and Constance."

Correct, cjmr. It might also be that their method involved the use of a blindfold, a Bible and an index finger. That might explain the choice of the names Remembrance (female) and Return (male).

[Geds]

Mmm, honey, I'm feeling experimental tonight -- why don't you shove a tent pet through my head and see if I get a thrill off it?

Careful what you ask for. In Anne McCaffrey's world it won't exactly be your head the tent peg gets driven through.

At least, that's what I hear...

[Sarah Jane]

I think Remembrance is kind-of sweet; I'm assuming it ties to all the times in the Old Testament when we are told that God "remembered" Israel. As a name, Remembrance might bring to mind an image of God as a tender mother, sweeping to the aid of her scattered children.

[mmack]

The downside: Ever been to Graceland?

Fred, I have been to Graceland, and while there aren't adjectives in the English language accurate enough to describe the decor (everyone focuses on the Jungle Room. The Jungle Room is tame compared to the Pool Room, but I digress), that was all The King's (and the Percodan, Percocet, etc.) doing, and not 'scilla.

Thank Ya, Thankyaverymuch

Talking of other names that get clobbered by pop culture: Esther. Gets her own book in the Bible, verses written about her beauty, saves the Jews from extermination by the Persians, and her legacy?

"Esther, you're so ugly I could press your face in some dough, and make gorilla cookies!"

"Why Fred Sanford, you fish-eyed old fool!"

And bringing it closer to home, we just added a Sofia to our family. My wife's cousin and his wife added a new daughter to their family this past summer.

[cjmr]

Remembrance might be a child conceived (or born) right after another child had died, and Return could be a 'conceived late in life after they thought fertility was at an end child', though, too.

[Chris]

I quite like Milka, despite its dairy associations.

Jael really did to Sisera pretty much what Delilah did to Samson. But *she's* a good guy...

[MikhailBorg]

Mark my words, "Remembrance" will be known as "Memo" to her friends before she's fourteen.

Or possibly "Bob".

[delathi]

A Jael

Jael is the singer.

[Abelardus]

Talking of other names that get clobbered by pop culture: Esther.

Although to be fair it is a Persian name, meaning "star" in the same vein as Ishtar. The girl's Hebrew name was Hadassah -- which means "myrtle."

[Robb]

Parents would be docked 25 class points for naming the [child] after a TV character.

Yeah, my parents suck - I'm named for Rob Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show. My wife's name is Mystique, because the morning she was born was misty, but "misty" was too obvious & adjective-like, and my FIL had just watched "Play Misty For me."

When going for names for our daughter, we wanted something usual, but with history, and we considered every female name in the Bible (well, every unusual one at least), including the Fred-approved ones. In the Biblical practice of naming someone for what they're intended to do, we ended up with Thalia, the Greek Muse of Comedy and one of the three Charities or Graces. "The Inspiration for laughter" and "The Grace of Good Cheer & Festivity" was far better than anything else we could come up with.

I gotta admit, though - the tent pegs thing is pretty bad ass, and I'd be proud to be the parent of such a bad ass child. Though I'd probably want to be spared the details.

[straight]

Lydia is one of my favorites. She was a greek merchant who heard Paul's preaching and was baptized along with her whole household. She's the first European convert to Christianity mentioned in the Bible (the book of Acts). But mainly, I just think it's a beautiful name.

[Jeff]

which is pretty amazing considering it's also the name of a soon-to-be-lobotomized woman from LB by gynophobic L&J.

Chloe is also the single most awesome character on 24 (even if the actress allowed herself to be kissed by Rush Limbaugh -- yuck!). The scene where she tasers a guy at a bar is pure gold.

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although the supermodel is far more frequently cited than the country singer or the feminist writer

I had a friend from Portland, Or with that name. It's a cool name. (I think the supermodel and the country singer are mentioned about the same these days, but the feminist writer not as much as either.

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I've always liked Talitha.

I suspect you're fonder of Talitha cum... (Don't blame me, I'm just quoting from hapax's link!)

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Lydia is one of my favorites.

Lydia, oh Lydia, oh have you met Lydia? Lydia the tattooed lady? Maybe not.

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I'm "named" for my grandfather, in the sense that my name and his are roughly the same (I think our Hebrew names are the same). My middle name also comes from a relative, but I forget which one. I tend not to use it, so it matters little.

[cjmr]

re: Lydia

Jeff, that's exactly what I thought.

[Karen]

Robb, the TV names thing only applies to names popularized by TV characters. Your parents may have been inspired by Dick Van Dyke but they actually picked a normal name. The kind I'm talking about are like some people I know who named their oldest son Jean Luc. Their last name was NOT French. At all.

Also, the worst names I ever knew were the family who once belonged to my church that named their three kids Cedar, Birch, and Pine.

[andlorr]

My college roommate named her two girls Hadassah and Lydia.

I vaguely remember reading Silas Marner, in which he explains to someone that Hepzibah is a biblical name. I have no idea where in the bible it appears, though.

Candace was in fact the Ethiopian queen, although I wonder if the name should be pronounced like Greek names, as "Kandakee." Or Eunice, as "Eunikee."

If I ever had a daughter, I would name her Susannah. It's a beautiful name.

[Abelardus]

That's the unlucky lady Rush put the moves on? Wow, I think I'm gonna need some mind-soap....

[Tonio]

When I hear "Obediah," I imagine a patriarch of a 1920s American prairie town that is dominated by an extremist Christian sect, looking like the husband in "American Gothic" except dressed in black, preaching hellfire 'n' damnation.

[Karen]

Wasn't the real name of Sky Masterson from "Guys and Dolls" Obadiah?

[Robb]

he kind I'm talking about are like some people I know who named their oldest son Jean Luc. Their last name was NOT French. At all.

Um. . . Set Phasers to "wrong"?

[cjmr]

Karen: "Obediah Masterson, that's my real name." (I was one of the mission dolls our high school musical version. I can still do stretches of dialogue 21 years later.)

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re: Jean Luc not-a-French-last-name

Both my birth surname and married one* are French, but you wouldn't know to look at them or hear them pronounced due to Americanizations of spelling and pronunciation.

Not that I'd name a son Jean Luc, though.

*I use both surnames on legal documents and just husband's socially.

[Davis X. Machina]

Every Melissa is a Deborah (honey-bee).

[jamoche]

When my mom was doing genealogy she found one family in the 1880s who'd named their daughters for the states they were born in. Not so bad for Georgia, but pity poor Tennessea and Kentuckia...

[Axiomatic]

O Susanna-mio, divided girl of mine, done parked her rig at the Dixie Pig in the year of 99.

[Izzy]

I was almost named Bathsheba.

Seriously. My parents weren't religious, but Dad had a major thing for Thomas Hardy. It took my grandmother's intervention, in the end, to save me from a life of bad jokes every time I met a guy named Dave.

If I'd been a guy, I'd have been Ezekiel or Obediah.

(And tangentially, I note that it's a toss up, for me, whether given names are worse than the ones people take for themselves when they become strippers or Wiccans* or whatever.)

*Meaning no offense to Wiccans, particularly. I'm pagan myself. But you really *could* do one of those Brunching Shuttlecock-esque "My Little Pony or Porn Star" things: Stripper or Pagan?

[Anna]

I think my favorite obscure regional naming trend is one I discovered growing up in the deep South. There is a certain generation of rural farmers (most are in their eighties now) who were named after greek philosophers. When I was young, the farmer who lived down the road from us was Plato Socrates Smith (everyone in the community called him Bubba). Off the top of my head, I can also remember a Democritus Corley (nicknamed Scooter), Xenocrates Oswalt (pronounced 'zeno-krats', nicknamed Junebug), Diogenes Blackman (AKA Rhubarb), and my personal favorite: Thrasymachus Aristophenes Kneece (AKA Bo). I don't know what inspired that particular enclave of farm families to name their children so oddly, but I've always sort of wondered about the story behind those names.

[Tonio]

Wasn't the real name of Sky Masterson from "Guys and Dolls" Obadiah?

I couldn't tell you - I've never seen it.

[cjmr's husband]

Well, at the next desk as I type this, is a guy named Pericles. But then, he *is* greek.

[Tonio]

My parents operated under the assumption that it was the father's right to name sons and the mother's right to name daughters. At least, that's the story my mother told us. My father had some misogynist tendencies, so perhaps he simply didn't care enough to come up with a name for his daughter.

[cjmr's husband]

An apt cartoon

[Davis X. Machina]

My dad claims to had twins in his school -- very conservative African American family of good Bible-reading stock -- named First Corinthians Hall and Second Corinthians Hall.

I would like very much to believe this....

O Susanna-mio, divided girl of mine, done parked her rig at the Dixie Pig in the year of 99.

Precisely. :) And Blaine is a pain, and that is truth.

[andlorr]

Above was me.

[J]

Jezebel. If they were casting a movie of the books of Kings, this is the part that every actress would want, but it's not a popular girls name for the same reason that Lady Macbeth is not a popular girls name.

Once upon a time I was a social worker in Spanish Harlem and there I learned that Latins--or at least, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans--are just a wee bit more "daring" with their choice of biblical names. "Jesus" obviously is a biggie. Lots and lots of Reubens--which I can never NOT think of as either A.) a sandwich or B.) a Jew. I met three young women named Jezebel there. At least one Salome, too, and I've heard Salome is HUGE among women in Brazil.

[Jeff]

I don't recall where we had the discussion of "Kit" as an American first name, but I just ran across this at Hullabaloo: Intelligence and surveillance wars are going to be fought in Washington this week, and Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is at the center.

It does seem like a fair number of men named Christopher are nicknamed "Kit".

[PurpleGirl]

Re names based on characteristics or virtues -- Colin Dexter didn't use lead character Inspector Morse's given name in his books. The TV series made of the books did the same thing. There were hints of all sorts about what his given name was and how his parents decided on it, but the actual given name -- Endeavor -- was revealed only in the final novel and last show episode. (According to the story line, Morse's mother was a Quaker and his father admired Captain Cook, whose ship was the HM Bark Endeavor.)

[mmack]

Re: Obediah.

Has everybody forgotten Jebediah Obadiah Zachariah Jedediah Springfield, aka Hans Sprungfeld? Or has his noble spirit failed to embiggen all of you to remember this famous "Founding Father"?

[J]

Oh and also re Jezebel: I've been meaning to read this book ever since I first heard of it.

[Michael Llaneza]

Also for a biblical books recommendation, Orson Scott Card has his Women of Genesis series. Card is a Mormon and occasionally a nutjob, but he's a good writer.