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Wikipedia / List of biblical names

This page deals with biblical proper names, both toponyms and personal names.

Personal names

Personal names play a variety of roles in the Bible. They sometimes relate to the nominee's role in a biblical narrative, as in the case of Nabal, a foolish man whose name means "fool". Names in the Bible can represent human hopes, divine revelations, or are used to illustrate prophecies.

The titles given to characters, locations, and entities in the Bible can differ across various English translations. In a study conducted by the BibleAsk team in 2024, a comprehensive catalog of names found in the King James Version was compiled and organized into categories such as individuals, geographical locations, national groups, and miscellaneous designations. The team discovered that within the King James Version Bible, a total of 3,418 distinct names were identified. Among these, 1,940 names pertain to individuals, 1,072 names refer to places, 317 names denote collective entities or nations, and 66 names are allocated to miscellaneous items such as months, rivers, or pagan deities. There are instances of overlap, where the same name may be used across multiple categories (e.g., as both a personal name and a geographical location).

Based on a database of 3000 names documented from written sources dating from 330 BC – AD 200 (from Alexander's conquest through the Hasmonean kingdom and most of the Roman period), the most common twelve male names among Palestinian Jews were:

  • 1. Simon/Simeon (243)

  • 2. Joseph/Joses (218)

  • 3. Lazarus/Eleazar (166)

  • 4. Judas/Judah (164)

  • 5. John/Yohanan (122)

  • 6. Jesus/Joshua (99)

  • 7. Ananias/Hananiah (82)

  • 8. Jonathan (71)

  • 9. Matthew/Matthias/Mattathias (62)

  • 10. Manaen/Menahem (42)

  • 11. James/Jacob (40)

  • 12. Annas/Hanan (35)

During this period, the most common twelve female names were:

  • 1. Mary/Mariam (70)

  • 2. Salome (58)

  • 3. Shelamzion (24)

  • 4. Martha (20)

  • 5. Joanna (12)

  • 5. Sapphira/Shiphra (12)

  • 7. Berenice (8)

  • 8. Imma (7)

  • 8. Mara (7)

  • 10. Cyprus (6)

  • 10. Sarah (6)

  • 10. Alexandra (6)

Lists of toponyms and personal names

Lists of biblical proper names, both toponyms and personal names.

See also

  1. Personal names

  2. Genealogies in the Bible

  3. List of major biblical figures

  4. List of minor Old Testament figures, A–K

  5. List of minor Old Testament figures, L–Z

  6. List of minor New Testament figures

  7. List of women in the Bible

  8. List of names for the biblical nameless

  9. Theophoric name

  10. Toponyms

  11. List of biblical places

  12. List of modern names for biblical place names

  13. Onomasticon or On the Place Names in the Holy Scripture by Eusebius, completed in or before 324/325.

  14. Personal names and toponyms etc.

  15. Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible for which later editions contain A complete list of Scripture Proper Names as in the Authorised and Revised Versions, showing their modern pronunciation and the exact form of the original Hebrew by Wm. B. Stevenson.

  16. Bible names in their native languages

  17. Other

  18. Gemstones in the Bible

  19. List of animals in the Bible

  20. List of plants in the Bible

References

Further reading

  • Comay, Joan, Who's Who in the Old Testament, Oxford University Press, 1971,

  • Elwell, Walter A., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Baker Publishing Group, 1984, ISB 9781441200303

  • Lockyer, Herbert, All the men of the Bible, Zondervan Publishing House (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 1958

  • Lockyer, Herbert, All the women of the Bible, Zondervan Publishing 1988,

  • Lockyer, Herbert, All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible, Zondervan Publishing 1988,

  • Tischler, Nancy M., All things in the Bible: an encyclopedia of the biblical world , Greenwood Publishing, Westport, Conn. : 2006