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Theophoric name

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A theophoric name (from Greek: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, theophoros, literally "bearing or carrying a god")<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:LSJ.</ref> embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deity. For example, names embedding Apollo, such as Apollonios or Apollodorus, existed in Greek antiquity.<ref>Shendge, Malati J. The Language of the Harappans: From Akkadian to Sanskrit, 1997. p 24. "It may also be interpreted as theophorous names, i.e. the name of the god forming part of the name of an individual. The usage is theophorous because besides the eponymous Asura, each individual of high or low status has a personal name."</ref>

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.<ref>Zadok, R. The Pre-Hellenistic Israelite Anthroponymy and Prosopography, 1988. p 16. "The Period of the Judges (J) The theophorous names constitute a sizable minority (almost 40%). Many of the hypocoristica possibly originate from compound theophorous names (e.g., Abdon, Gerd, J21 1 1 1 1, 2141 12)."</ref><ref>Benz, Frank L. Personal Names in the Phoenician and Punic Inscriptions. p 233. "Any one of the three major types of elements, divine name or theophorous, nominal, or verbal can make up a Phoenician-Punic hypocoristic name. The divine name hypocoristic is the least attested. The simplest formation is that of a single ..."</ref><ref>Drijvers, H. J. W. Cults and Behafs at Edessa, 1980. p 21. "The proper names, which are mainly theophorous ones, may increase our knowledge of the religious feeling of the people of Edessa and of the cults practiced by them, insofar as their theophorous elements reflect existing beliefs."</ref> 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, Jonathan (from Hebrew Yonatan/Yehonatan, meaning "Yahweh has given").

Classical Greek and Roman theophoric namesEdit

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Greek and Roman theophoric names
Deity Name Meaning
Aphrodite Aphrodisius, -a
Hermaphroditus "Hermes and Aphrodite"
Apollo Apollodorus, -a "gift of Apollo"
Apollonides "son of Apollo"
Apollonius
Ares Arius "war-like"
Artemis Artemiche
Artemidorus "gift of Artemis"
Artemisius, -ia
Athena Athenaeus
Athenais
Athenagoras "man in Athena's market"
Athenodorus, -a "gift of Athena"
Cephissus Cephisodorus "gift of Cephissus"
Cephisodotus "given by Cephissus"
Demeter Demetrius, -ia
Demetrodorus "gift of Demeter"
Dionysus Dionysius, -a, Dennis
Dionysodorus, -a "gift of Dionysus"
Dionysicles "glory of Dionysus"
Fortuna Fortunatus "fortunate, lucky"
Hecate Hecataeus
Helios Heliodorus "gift of the Sun"
Hephaestus Hephaestion
Hera Heracles "glory of Hera"
Heraclitus
Herodotus "given by Hera"
Hermes Hermaphroditus "Hermes and Aphrodite"
Hermesianax "king Hermes"
Hermione, Hermion
Hermippus "horse of Hermes"
Hermocrates "strength of Hermes"
Hermogenes "born of Hermes"
Hermolaus "people of Hermes"
Isis Isidorus, -a "gift of Isis"
Mars Marcus
Martialis "Mars-like"
Martinus
Mene (Selene) Menodora "gift of the Moon"
Minerva Minervina "little Minerva"
Nymphs Nymphodora "gift of the nymphs"
Poseidon Poseidippus "horse of Poseidon"
Poseidorus, -a "gift of Poseidon"
Poseidonius
Serapis Serapion
Themis Themistocles "glory of Themis"
Zeus Dio of Zeus (gen. Dios)
Diocles, Diocletian "glory of Zeus"
Diodorus "gift of Zeus"
Zeno of Zeus (gen. Zenos)
Zenobius, -ia "might of Zeus"
Zenodotus "given by Zeus"

Certain names of classical gods are sometimes given as personal names. The most common is Diana and its variants, such as Diane; others include Minerva, Aphrodite, Venus, Isis, or Juno. The first pope to take a regnal name, Pope John II, had the given name Mercurius and changed his name as he considered it inappropriate for the pope to have a pagan deity's name.

Christian theophoric namesEdit

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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 namesEdit

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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).

HinduismEdit

{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= {{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Ambox }} }} 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 the Indian subcontinent. 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 that 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 a base for theophoric personal names.

Some seemingly theophoric names may in fact be more related to the original etymology of the deity's name itself. For example, both Lakshmi (fortune, success, prosperity) and Lakshman (prosperous, principal, marked) are names of a deity and an avatar respectively, which are related to lakṣ meaning "to mark or see".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

IslamEdit

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JudaismEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:Contains special characters Much Hebrew theophory occurs in the Jewish Bible. The most prominent theophoric names are:

  • names containing 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 containing 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. But abbreviations of the name Yahweh do 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.<ref>Mark Haughwout, "Personal Names Before Exodus 6:2-3"</ref>

ElEdit

Template:See also

YahwehEdit

Template:See also Abbreviations of the name of the Israelite deity YHWH (usually shortened to Yah or Yahu, and Yeho or Yo) appear 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<ref>Anson F. Rainey, How Yahweh Was Pronounced Template:Webarchive, QUERIES & COMMENTS.</ref> 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 because Hebrew scribes omitted 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.<ref>Christian Ginsburg, Introduction To the Massoretico-Critical Edition Of The Hebrew Bible, p 369</ref><ref>Scott Jones, Jehovah Template:Webarchive</ref>

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 godsEdit

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

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Personal names

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