Christian Pure

Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names

Christian Pure Team

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Published

Summary

  • Most names people search for are not in Scripture. Nearly all of them are Greek, Latin, Germanic, Celtic or English, and reached us long after the last book was written.
  • That is a fact about languages, not a verdict on anyone.
  • Scripture changes names more often than we remember — Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul — and the change is always given, never earned.
  • This directory links 169 name articles, each stating plainly whether the name appears in Scripture and what it actually means, with the etymology checked rather than guessed.
  • Where a name has a genuine biblical cousin, such as Sandra in Alexander or Liam in Eliam, the article tells that person’s story.

Most of us have looked. At some point — often late, often while naming a child — we have typed our own name and the word Bible into a search box, hoping to find ourselves somewhere in the story.

Here is the honest answer, dear friends, offered once so that the rest of this page can be useful: most of our names are not in Scripture. Nearly all the names in this directory are Greek, Latin, Germanic, Celtic or English, and they reached us long after the last book was written. That is not a verdict on anyone. It is a fact about languages.

And Scripture is entirely untroubled by it. The Bible is full of people named for the town they came from, the circumstances of their birth, or a joke their mother made. Names get changed in it more often than we remember — Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul — and the change is never a promotion earned. It is always something given.

So use this directory for what it is worth. Find the name. Learn where it truly comes from, which is usually more interesting than the invented Hebrew root someone tried to sell. And then let the question go, because the only name that finally settles anything is the one spoken over us at the font.

How to read these

Each entry says plainly whether the name appears in Scripture and what it actually means, with the etymology checked rather than guessed. Where a name has a genuine biblical cousin — as Sandra has in Alexander, and Liam in Eliam — the article says so and tells that person’s story.

Where it does not, the article says that too. We would rather hand over a plain fact than a pretty one.

The directory

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

V

W

Z

A word for the name that is not here

This directory will always be incomplete. If a name is missing, nothing is missing from the person who carries it.

Scripture ends with a promise about names that is stranger and better than any etymology: a white stone, given to each one, with a new name written on it that no one knows except the one who receives it. Not a name our parents chose. Not one we earned. A name known only between us and God.

Whatever we were called this morning, that is what we are being called toward.

Bibliography (Click to show)

Sources: etymologies in the linked articles are checked against Behind the Name; Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Revelation 2:17).

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