Theophoric name  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

A theophoric name (from Greek: θεόφορος, theophoros, literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the name of a god, both invoking and displaying the protection of that deity. For example, names embedding Apollo, such as Apollonios or Apollodorus, existed in Greek antiquity.

Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word for god), were also exceedingly common in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamia. Some names of theophoric origin remain common today, such as Theodore (theo-, "god"; -dore, origin of word compound in Greek: doron, "gift"; hence "God's gift"; in Greek: Theodoros) or less recognisably as Jonathan (from Hebrew Yonatan/Yehonatan, meaning "Yahweh has given").

Contents

Classical theophoric names

Christian theophoric names

Some Christian saints have polytheistic theophoric names (such as Saint Dionysius, Saint Mercurius, Saint Saturninus, Saint Hermes, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki,).

Germanic theophoric names

Rarely, Germanic names contain the element Wod (such as Woðu-riðe), potentially pointing to an association with the god Odin. In connection, numerous names containing wulf "wolf" have been taken as totemistic, expressing association with Odin in the earliest period, although -ulf degenerated into a mere suffix from an early time (Förstemann 1856).

Hinduism

The personal names of almost all gods and goddesses of various deities from the polytheistic Hindu pantheon are considered common and traditional names for people from region. Many traditional Hindu names are in fact from various names or epithets of Hindu gods or goddesses. This is in addition to compound theophoric names using the name of a deity in addition to possessive qualifiers.

  • Names of gods which are also used as personal names, include
  • Personal names using a deity's name as the base
    • Vaishnavi, meaning "a worshipper of Vishnu"
    • Shivansh, meaning "a part of Shiva"

Brahma, the Hindu creator god, is one of the only deities of the pantheon whose name is rarely if ever used as a personal name or as a base for theophoric personal names.

It must be noted however that some seemingly theophoric names, may in fact be more related to the original etymology of the deity's name itself. For example, both Lakshmi and Lakshman are names of a deity and an avatar respectively, which are both derived from the etymological root Laksh meaning goal or aim, which in itself is also a valid personal name.

Islam

Judaism and biblical

Much Hebrew theophory occurs in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. The most prominent theophory involves

  • names referring to El, a word meaning might, power and (a) god in general, and hence in Judaism, God and among the Canaanites the name of the god who was the father of Baal.
  • names referring to Yah, a shortened form of Yahweh.
  • names referring to Levantine deities (especially the storm god, Hadad) by the epithet Baal, meaning lord.

In later times, as the conflict between Yahwism and the more popular pagan practices became increasingly intense, these names were censored and Baal was replaced with Bosheth, meaning shameful one. However the name Yahweh does not appear in theophoric names until the time of Joshua, and for the most part is very rare until the time of King Saul, when it began to be very popular.

El

Yahweh

The name of the Israelite deity YHWH (usually shortened to Yah or Yahu, and Yeho or Yo) appears as a prefix or suffix in many theophoric names of the First Temple Period. For example, Yirme-yahu (Jeremiah), Yesha-yahu (Isaiah), Netan-yah, Yedid-yah, Adoni-yah, Nekhem-yah, Yeho-natan (Jonathan), Yeho-chanan (John), Yeho-shua (Joshua), Yeho-tzedek, Zekharya (Zechariah).

"Yahū" or "Yah" is the abbreviation of YHWH when used as a suffix in Hebrew names; as a prefix it appears as "Yehō-", or "Yo". It was formerly thought to be abbreviated from the Masoretic pronunciation "Yehovah". There is an opinion that, as Yahweh is likely an imperfective verb form, "Yahu" is its corresponding preterite or jussive short form: compare yiŝtahaweh (imperfective), yiŝtáhû (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".

In the table below, 13 theophoric names with "Yeho" have corresponding forms where the letters eh have been omitted. There is a theory by Christian Ginsburg that this is due to Hebrew scribes omitting the "h", changing Jeho (Template:Script/Hebrew) into Jo (Template:Script/Hebrew), to make the start of "Yeho-" names not sound like an attempt to pronounce the Divine Name.

Strong's # the name other element English conventional form
long form short form long form short form long form short form
3059 3099 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉho'achaz Template:Script/Hebrew Yo'achaz achaz [# 270] Jehoahaz Joahaz
3060 3101 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉho'ash Template:Script/Hebrew Yo'ash 'esh [# 784] Jehoash Joash
3075 3107 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhozabad Template:Script/Hebrew Yozabad zabad [# 2064] Jehozabad Jozabad
3076 3110 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhowchanan Template:Script/Hebrew Yochanan chanan [# 2603] Yehochanan Jochanan
3077 3111 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoyada Template:Script/Hebrew Yoyada yada [# 3045] Jehoiada Joiada
3078 3112 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoyakin Template:Script/Hebrew Yoyakin kun [# 3559] Yehoyakin Joiakin
3079 3113 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoyaqim Template:Script/Hebrew Yoyaqim qum [# 3965] Yehoyakim Joakim
3080 3114 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoyarib Template:Script/Hebrew Yoyarib rib [# 7378] Jehoiarib Joiarib
3082 3122 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhonadab Template:Script/Hebrew Yonadab nadab [# 5068] Jehonadab Jonadab
3083 3129 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhonathan Template:Script/Hebrew Yonathan nathan [# 5414] Yehonathan Jonathan
3085 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉho'addah 'adah [# 5710] Jehoaddah
3087 3136 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhotsadaq Template:Script/Hebrew Yotsadaq tsadaq [# 6663] Jehozadak Jozadak
3088 3141 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoram Template:Script/Hebrew Yoram rum [# 7311] Jehoram Joram
3092 3146 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉhoshaphat Template:Script/Hebrew Yoshaphat shaphat [# 8199] Jehoshaphat Joshaphat
3470a 3470 Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉsha'yahu Template:Script/Hebrew Yᵉsha'yah yasha [# 3467] Yeshayahu Isaiah
5418a 5418 Template:Script/Hebrew Nᵉthanyahu Template:Script/Hebrew Nᵉthanyah nathan [# 5414] Netanyahu Netaniah
138a 138 Template:Script/Hebrew 'Adoniyahu Template:Script/Hebrew 'Adoniyah 'adown [# 113] Adoniyahu Adonijah
452a 452 Template:Script/Hebrew 'Eliyahu Template:Script/Hebrew 'Eliyah 'el [# 410] Eliyahu Elijah
3414a 3414 Template:Script/Hebrew Yirmᵉyahu Template:Script/Hebrew Yirmᵉyah rum [# 7311] Yirmeyahu Jeremiah
5166 Template:Script/Hebrew Nᵉchemyah nacham [# 5162] Nechemiah

Referring to other gods

Theophoric names containing "Baal" were sometimes "censored" as -bosheth = "shameful one", whence Ishbosheth etc.

Some names might be controversial theological statements: Bealiah could mean Baal is Yahweh and Elijah could mean Yahweh is El (and vice versa, respectively).Template:Citation needed On the other hand, as traditionally understood, these names simply mean "YHWH is Master" and "YHWH is God." (1 Chron. 12:5)

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Theophoric name" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools