Many Hebrew names in the Bible are short sentences about God. Micah even asks a question, “who is like Yahweh?”, and Ezekiel says God strengthens. In 2025, Elijah came seventh on the US list for boys.
List Of 200 Biblical Boy Names And Their Meanings:
Gideon
A man who chops down trees, and Gideon cut down the pole next to his father’s altar (Judges 6:27).
Ittai
With me.
Zadok
‘Righteous’. In 1727 Handel wrote Zadok the Priest for George II’s coronation/
Abel
abel means breath and is from hebrew hevel.
Bezalel
Mentioned in Exodus 31, Bezalel means “in the shadow of God,” and he is the craftsman who made the Ark of the Covenant. The origin comes from the word tsel (צֵל) meaning shadow. A Jerusalem art academy founded in 1906 is also called Bezalel.
Uri
“my light/fire.”
Absalom
Absalom. Pronounced AB-suh-lum, this Hebrew pick has roots in Avshalom, meaning ‘father is peace’. If you like Southern novels, William Faulkner (1897-1962) used it for Absalom, Absalom!
Michael
From mi-ka-El: “who is like God?”
Noah
Fits parents who want two syllables and a flood story. Noah topped US boy charts from 2013 to 2016 and came second in 2025.
Rufus
Red-haired in Latin, and the son of Simon of Cyrene in Mark 15:21.
Bartholomew
According to Behind the Name, Bartholomew comes from Aramaic and means “son of Talmai.” Michelangelo painted him in The Last Judgment gripping his flayed skin.
Jesse
“Gift,” “oblation,” “one who is,” or “wealthy.”
Ezekiel
Ezekiel is pronounced ih-ZEE-kee-ul and means “God strengthens.” He saw dry bones stand up as an army (Ezekiel 37:10), and his book runs to forty-eight chapters.
Hillel
Praise.
Levi
Levi is attached. Levi Strauss (1829-1902) patented riveted work pants with Jacob Davis.
Ram
“high/exalted.”
Jabez
Mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:9, Jabez means “sorrow,” which is what his mother said she felt at his birth. The origin comes from the word otsev (עֹצֶב) meaning pain. Jabez also means “trouble” in Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary, and Bruce Wilkinson’s book The Prayer of Jabez came out in 2000 and sold millions of copies.
Seth
seth means placed and is from hebrew shet.
Lazarus
Lazarus is a version of Hebrew Eleazar meaning “God has helped” and “assistance of God”. It is also the man Jesus raised at Bethany after four days in a tomb (John 11).
Job
“Persecuted,” or “hated.”
John
Its etymology is Greek Ioannes, from Hebrew Yochanan, “Yahweh is gracious,” and it is a variant of Johanan.
Naphtali
my wrestling/struggle.comparison/likeness
Ishmael
Ishmael comes from Hebrew Yishma’el (יִשְׁמָעֵאל), “God will hear.” Herman Melville opened Moby-Dick (1851) with three words: “Call me Ishmael.”
Elon
Elon (EE-lon/eh-LOHN) – Means “oak” or “grove”
Gad
Being of Hebrew origin, Gad means “fortune” and “luck”. Besides these meanings, Gad has meanings such as “troop” and “band”, from Leah’s words in Genesis 30:11, which the King James Bible renders as “a troop cometh”. In English, to gad about is to roam for fun, a different word with nothing to do with Jacob’s seventh son.
Asa
Asa (AY-suh/AH-sah) – Means “healer” or “physician”
Matthias
Matthias is a version of Hebrew Mattityahu meaning “gift of Yahweh” and “gift of God”. It is also the apostle chosen by lot to replace Judas (Acts 1:26).
Joseph
From yasaf, to add.
Ebenezer
Ebenezer is symbolizing help: Samuel set up a stone near Mizpah and called it this, “stone of help” (1 Samuel 7:12).
Amos
“Loading,” or “weighty.”
Joshua
Its etymology is Yehoshua, “Yahweh is salvation,” and it is a variant of Hoshea, the form Moses changed (Numbers 13:16).
Thomas
“Twin” in Aramaic, and Didymus says the same in Greek (John 11:16).
Gershom
Gershom comes from Hebrew ger (גֵּר), “stranger.” Exodus 2:22 says: “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.”
Philip
Philip: Philip come from Greek Philippos, lover of horses.
Malachi
Prophet picks may feel a little played out at the moment…but not Malachi, guys. It means ‘my messenger’.
Jethro
abundance/excellence.his excellence/his posterity
Felix
Being of Latin origin, Felix means “lucky” and “happy”. Besides these meanings, Felix has meanings such as “fortunate” and “fruitful”. Paul argued his case before Governor Felix in Caesarea (Acts 24).
Joab
Joab is meaning “Yahweh is father”, and he commanded David’s army.
Abner
‘My father is light,’ and Joab, just above, killed him at Hebron (2 Samuel 3:27).
Laban
Laban is white. He tricked Jacob into marrying Leah first.
Peter
“Stone.” Jesus renamed Simon on the spot (John 1:42), and fun fact, Cephas in Aramaic also means rock.
Zebulun
dwelling/habitation.exalted/high
Raphael
Raphael. Rafael is the Spanish and Portuguese version of this archangel, which means ‘God heals’ in Hebrew. Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) painted The School of Athens. A diminutive for your son is Rafa.
Isaiah
From Yeshayahu, Yahweh is salvation..
Asher
Fits families after a happy meaning. Asher was the top US boy pick starting with A in 2025, ahead of Alexander.
Eber
“one that passes/anger.”
Jason
Healer, and Jason has roots in Greek iaomai, to heal. A mob in Thessalonica dragged him to the city rulers for hosting Paul (Acts 17:5-6).
Obed
‘Servant.’ His grandson is David, a little further down.
Esau
Esau is meaning hairy, rough. He sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew.
Caleb
“Dog,” “whole-hearted,” “crow,” or “basket.”
Melchizedek
Melchizedek is symbolizing a king who is also a priest, and Hebrews 7:2 translates him as ‘king of righteousness’. He met Abram with bread and wine.
Abraham
Abraham is av hamon, “father of many.”
Eli
The name Eli has various different meanings in different languages depending on its root. In Hebrew, Eli (עֵלִי) means “ascended” or “lifted up”, and he was the priest at Shiloh who raised young Samuel. In Turkish, eli means “his hand”, while in Finnish, eli means “that is”. On the cross, Jesus cried “Eli, Eli”, which Matthew 27:46 gives as “my God, my God”.
Zebedee
Zebedee is a version of Hebrew Zebadiah meaning “Yahweh has bestowed” and “abundant”. It is also the fisherman father of James and John in Mark 1:19-20.
Ephraim
fruitful/increasing.fruitfulness/double fruit
Samuel
Samuel – ‘God has heard.’ 1 Samuel 1:20 says: “Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.”
Abiel
My father is God.
Daniel
Daniel is from Hebrew Daniyyel (דָּנִיֵּאל), “God is my judge.” Daniel 6:22 has him telling King Darius: “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me.”
Issachar
”there is reward”/”hire”/”wages”/”recompense”
Ithamar
Symbolizing a palm tree, Ithamar means “isle of palms” and was Aaron’s youngest sons (I first wrote eldest before checking Exodus 6:23).
Josiah
Yahweh supports, and he became king at age eight (2 Kings 22:1).
Gabriel
Gabriel is from Hebrew and has a meaning that I like, “God is my strength.” He’s the angel who told Mary she would have a son (Luke 1:31).
Nahum
“Comforter.” He’s the prophet who wrote about Nineveh falling.
Ezra
Fits parents who like a short boys’ pick ending in A. Ezra was the third most used E pick for US boys in 2025, after Elijah and Elias.
Boaz
Boaz (BOH-az/BOH-ahz) – Means “swiftness” or “in strength”
Methuselah
“Man of the spear,” and he live nine hundred sixty-nine years (Genesis 5:27).
Joel
Joel is from Hebrew and has a meaning that I love, “Yahweh is God.”
Silas
If you’re looking for a short and cute biblical boy pick, Silas may fit the bill. It’s the short form of Silvanus, which in Latin means ‘of the forest’.
Erastus
‘Beloved,’ or ‘lovely.’ A city treasurers in Corinth (Romans 16:23).
Samson
Samson comes from Hebrew Shimshon (שִׁמְשׁוֹן), from shemesh, “sun.” After the fight at Lehi, Judges 15:16 records: “With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.”
Nathan
Nathan means “gift” and is a diminutive of Nathaniel and Jonathan.
Moses
‘Son,’ and the name is derived from Egyptian mes, the same element that comes at the end of Ramesses.
Linus
Flax in Greek, and lin is still flax in French.
Onesimus
“Useful,” or “profitable.” Paul plays on it in Philemon 1:11, calling the runaway slave once unprofitable and now profitable.
Jairus
Jairus: here, a Greek-Hebrew pick with a bright meaning of “he enlightens.”
Jedidiah
Jedidiah, ‘beloved of Yahweh.’ It is pronounced as jed-ih-DY-uh, and is also spelled as Jedediah. Nathan called baby Solomon this in 2 Samuel 12:25.
Paul
Paul is meaning ‘small’ in Latin. He survived a shipwreck on Malta (Acts 28:1).
Benjamin
From ben, son, and yamin, right hand, south. Rachel first called him Benoni, ‘son of my sorrow’ (Genesis 35:18).
Zach
Zach means “Yahweh remembers” and is a diminutive of Zachary, Zechariah, Zachariah and Zacharias.
Mark
English form of Latin Marcus, which comes from Mars, the Roman war god.
Lucius
‘Light’ in Latin, and the word for it is luz in Spanish.
Luke
English form of Greek Loukas, which is from Lucania, a region of southern Italy. Paul calls him “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14).
Nehemiah
‘Yahweh comforts,’ and his crews repaired Jerusalem’s wall in fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15).
Hezekiah
Jerusalem’s Siloam tunnel runs five hundred thirty-three meters through rock and dates to his reign. Hezekiah: ‘Yahweh strengthens’.
Barnabas
“Son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
Jude
Jude means “praised” and is a diminutive of Judas and Judah.
Isaac
Isaac – “He will laugh.” Genesis 21:6 says: “And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.”
Reuben
”behold, a son”/”see, a son”/”who sees the son”/”vision of the son”
David
Beloved, and the shepherd boy who killed Goliath with a sling.
Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus (‘pure’) climbed a sycamore in Jericho to see Jesus over the crowd.
Uzziah
“My strength is Yahweh.” He died a leper (2 Chronicles 26:21), shut away in a separate house. Fun detail, 2 Kings 15 calls him Azariah, and that one means “Yahweh has helped” (yuh-ZY-uh).
Nicodemus
Nicodemus (“victory of the people”) came to Jesus by night (John 3:2).
Jacob
Supplanter, and the name is derived from aqev, heel, and comes from Yaaqov. He grabbed Esau’s heel at birth (Genesis 25:26).
Hiram
Hiram (HY-rum) – Means “brother, exalted,” the king of Tyre who sent cedar to Solomon.
Emmanuel
Mentioned in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23, Emmanuel means “God with us,” which Matthew applies to Jesus. The origin comes from the word im (עִם) meaning with. Emmanuel also appears as Immanuel in Isaiah’s King James text.
Ira
‘Watchful’ in Hebrew, and Latin ira, anger, survives unchanged in Italian and Spanish.
Phinehas
Phinehas (FIN-ee-us) – Means “the Nubian,” the grandson of Aaron who stopped a plague with a spear (Numbers 25:7-8).
Solomon
Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, says 1 Kings 11:3. Solomon means peace.
Aaron
Mountain, high. Aaron has origins in Hebrew Aharon, and his rod budded with almonds overnight (Numbers 17:8).
Aquila
“Eagle” in Latin, and a tentmaker who worked with Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:3).
Tola
Worm.
Dan
“He judged” in Hebrew, “day” in Croatian, “and” in Indonesian, and a black belt rank in Japanese.
Elijah
It combines Eli, my God, and Yah. Elijah went to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).
Cornelius
Cornelius (‘horn’) were a Roman centurion in Caesarea, the first gentile Peter baptized.
Jeremiah
It comes from Yirmeyahu, Yahweh will exalt.
Andrew
English form of Greek Andreas, which comes from aner, man.
Obadiah
Obadiah is meaning servant, worshipper of Yahweh. His book has twenty-one verses, the shortest in the Hebrew Bible.
Jehu
“Yahweh is he,” and a watchman knew him by his furious driving (2 Kings 9:20).
Simon
Simon. Though it’s different by just one letter, this is the Greek version of Simeon, which means ‘he has heard’ in Hebrew. An even rarer form is Shimon.
Habakkuk
Habakkuk is pronounced huh-BAK-uk and means ‘embrace’. He stood on a watchtower waiting for an answer (Habakkuk 2:1).
Manoah
“Rest.” That’s Samson’s father, who talked with an angel (Judges 13:11).
Ariel
Symbolizing a lion, Ariel means “lion of God” and shows up as a man in Ezra 8:16.
Ethan
Being of Hebrew origin, Ethan means “solid” and “firm”. Besides these meanings, Ethan has meanings such as “permanent” and “perennial”. Psalm 89 has Ethan the Ezrahite in its heading.
Saul
Asked for, and the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 10:1).
Micah
Micah, “who is like Yahweh?” It is pronounced as MY-kuh, and is also spelled as Michah in the King James Bible.
Eutychus
Eutychus (“fortunate”) fall asleep during Paul’s talk and dropped from a window (Acts 20:9).
Jonah
jonah means dove and is from hebrew yonah. He spent three days and three nights inside a great fish.
Uriah
Uriah (yuh-RY-uh) – Means “Yahweh is my light,” the Hittite soldier David sent to die.
Baruch
“Blessed.”
Adam
adam means man and is from hebrew adam.
More biblical boy names with meanings:
Names that end in -iah or -jah close on Yah, a short form of Yahweh.
- Peleg – division (Genesis 10:25)
- Ner – means lamp in Hebrew
- Asaph – one who gathers; twelve psalms list him in the heading
- Zerubbabel – seed of Babylon
- Jared – Descent
- Mishael – who is what God is
- Kish – Hard, difficult; Saul’s father
- Barak – lightning.
- Abishai – My father is a gift
- Jephthah – he opens
- Japheth – Enlarged; one of Noah’s three sons
- Korah – baldness, and the earth swallowed him (Numbers 16:32)
- Mahalalel – Praise of El
- Reu– friend
- Elkanah – El has acquired; Hannah’s husband
- Amram – exalted people
- Jehoshaphat – Yahweh has judged; the king inside the exclamation “jumping Jehoshaphat”
- Serug – Branch
- Abdon – Servant; a judge with forty sons and thirty grandsons on seventy donkeys (Judges 12:14)
- Ebed-melech – the king’s servant, an Ethiopian who pulled jeremiah from a muddy cistern
Rare Hebrew Boy Names From the Bible
Elias was the second most used E pick for US boys in 2025, right after Elijah.
- Lemuel – belonging to El; Proverbs 31 opens with his mother’s advice
- Nun – means fish in Hebrew, and Joshua’s father
- Ahab – Uncle; Jezebel’s husband
- Gedaliah – Yah is great
- Barzillai – Made of iron; at eighty years of age he fed David’s army at Mahanaim
- Zephaniah – yahweh has hidden
- Hobab – beloved
- Elihu – he is my God, and the youngest voice in Job’s debate
- Joktan – Small
- Nadab – generous; he offered strange fire (Leviticus 10:1)
- Merari – Bitter
- Rehoboam – he enlarges the people, and a champagne bottle size
- Kohath – congregation
- Perez – a breach, the twin who burst out first (Genesis 38:29)
- Zerah – Dawning; the twin with the scarlet thread
- Abiathar – Father of abundance
- Jachin – he establishes; a bronze pillar at Solomon’s temple
- Nahor – snorting, panting
- Adonijah – My lord is Yahweh.
- Obed-edom – servant of Edom; the ark stayed three months at his house
Unusual biblical names for boys
Jewish boys traditionally get their name at the brit milah on the eighth day. Luke 1:59 shows relatives at that ceremony trying to call John after his father Zacharias.
- Jeroboam – the people contend; first king of the northern tribes
- Uzziel – My strength is El
- Enos – Man
- Abijah – my father is Yah
- Ichabod – No glory, and the schoolmaster Washington Irving sent fleeing in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Gad – fortune
- Elimelech – My God is king; Naomi’s husband
- Shem – Name, in Hebrew; Semitic comes from him
- Ahitub – brother of goodness
- Tobiah – Yah is good; an Ammonite official who mocked Nehemiah’s wall
- Asahel – El has made
- Zedekiah – justice of Yahweh; the last king of Judah
- Hilkiah – My portion is Yah”
- Mordecai – Servant of Marduk
- Jubal – a trumpet; ancestor of harp and pipe players (Genesis 4:21)
- Kenan– possessor
- Joash – Yahweh has bestowed; crowned at age seven (2 Kings 11:21)
- Haggai – festive.
- Abimelech – My father is king
- Elisha – my God is salvation, and the prophet with two she-bears
Biblical baby boy names from the Gospels and Paul’s letters
- Apollos – from Apollo; an Alexandrian praised for his speaking (Acts 18:24)
- Crispus – Curly-haired
- Ananias – Yah is gracious; he laid hands on Saul’s blind eyes
- Philemon – affectionate
- Demetrius – of Demeter; a silversmith who stirred up Ephesus (Acts 19:24)
- Secundus – second
- Gamaliel – reward of God; the rabbi who taught Paul (Acts 22:3)
- Tertius – third.
- Trophimus – Nourishing; an Ephesian friend of Paul
- Sosthenes – safe strength
- Zenas – gift of Zeus, a lawyer in Titus 3:13
- Justus – Just
- Onesiphorus – one who brings profit
- Archippus – master of horses
- Cleopas – Glory of the father, walking to Emmaus
- Quartus – Fourth
- Clement – merciful, in Latin
- Gaius – To rejoice; 3 John is written to him
- Bartimaeus – son of Timaeus, a blind beggar outside Jericho
- Tychicus – fortunate; Paul’s courier
- Aristarchus – best ruler; he sailed with Paul toward Rome