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Atheophoric name (fromGreek:θεόφορος,theophoros, literally "bearing or carrying a god")^[1][2] embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a 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 embeddingApollo, such asApollonios orApollodorus, existed in Greek antiquity.^[3]

Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word forgod), were also exceedingly common in theancient Near East andMesopotamia.^[4][5][6] Some names of theophoric origin remain common today, such asTheodore (theo-, "god";-dore, origin of word compound in Greek:doron, "gift"; hence "God's gift"; in Greek:Theodoros) or, less recognisably,Jonathan (fromHebrewYonatan/Yehonatan, meaning "Yahweh has given").

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Certain names of classical gods are sometimes given as personal names. The most common isDiana and its variants, such asDiane; others includeMinerva,Aphrodite,Venus,Isis, orJuno. The firstpope to take aregnal name,Pope John II, had the given nameMercurius and changed his name as he considered it inappropriate for the pope to have a pagan deity's name.

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• Abdelmasih: (Arabic) "servant of the Messiah"
• Abdisho: (Syriac) "servant of Jesus"
• Ahadabui, alsoAhidabu: (Syriac) "brother to the Father"
• Ahischema: (Syriac) "brother of theschema"
• Aitillaha: (Syriac) "God exists"
• Amadeus: (Latin) "lover of God"
• Attallah: (Arabic) "gift of God"
• Bakhtishu: (Syriac) "redeemed by Jesus"
• Bogdan,Bohdan/a (Slavic) "God given"
• Bogomil,Bohumil/a (Slavic) "dear to God"
• Bozhidar, Božidar/a (Slavic) "gift of God"
• Christian: (Greek) "believer in Christ"
• Christodoulos: (Greek) "servant of Christ"
• Christopher: (Greek) "Christ-bearer".
• Deodatus/Deusdedit: (Latin) "God-given"
• Dorotheus/Dorothea: (Greek) "gift to God"
• Fürchtgott: (Germanic) "God-fearing"
• Gebreamlak: (Ge'ez) "servant of God"
• Geoffrey/Gottfried: (Germanic) "God's peace"
• Gottlieb: (Germanic) "God's love"
• Ishodad: (Syriac) "given by Jesus"
• Ishosabran orSabrisho: (Syriac) "patient for Jesus"
• Ishoyahb orYahbisho: (Syriac) "Jesus has given"
• Marnazka: (Syriac) "the Lord has conquered"
• Philothea/Philothei/Philotheos: (Greek) "lover of God"
• Ramel: (Syriac) "God is exalted"
• Sabrisho orIshosabran: (Syriac) "patient for Jesus"
• Shubhalisho, alsoShubhisho: (Syriac) "praise to Jesus"
• Shenouda: (Coptic) "son of God"
• Slibazka: (Syriac) "the Cross has conquered"
• Theodore/Theodora: (Greek) "gift of God"
• Theodosius/Theodosia, Theodotos/Theodotē andDositheus/Dosithea: (Greek) "God-given"
• Theodotus: (Greek): "given by God"
• Theodulus: (Greek) "servant of God"
• Theophilus: (Greek) "one who loves God"
• Theognis: (Greek) "God-knowing"
• Theophanes/Theophania,Tiffany: (Greek) "manifestation of God"
• Theophobus: (Greek) "one who fears God"
• Theophrastus: (Greek) "godly speech"
• Theaetetus: (Greek) "one who pleads to God"
• Timothy/Timotheus: (Greek) "one who honors God"
• Yahballaha: (Syriac) "God has given"

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

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• Os, meaning "god"
  • Oscar
  • Oslac
  • Oswald
  • Oswin
• Thor, the god of thunder
  • Thorstein means "Thor's stone"
  • Thorkel means "Thor's craft"
  • Thorulf means "Thor's wolf"
  • Thordis
  • Thora
• Ing, an old name forFreyr (an epithet meaning "lord")
  • Ingrid
  • Ingeborg
  • Inger
  • Ingunn

Rarely, Germanic names contain the elementWod (such asWoðu-riðe), potentially pointing to an association with the godOdin. In connection, numerous names containingwulf "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).

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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
  • Vishnu
  • Shiva
  • Lakshmi
  • Parvati
  • Indra
• 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, bothLakshmi (fortune, success, prosperity) andLakshman (prosperous, principal, marked) are names of a deity and an avatar respectively, which are related tolakṣ meaning "to mark or see".^[7]

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• Abdullah: "servant of God"

This article containsHebrew text. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hebrew letters.

MuchHebrew theophory occurs in theJewish Bible. The most prominent theophoric names are:

• names containingEl, a word meaningmight,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 containingYah, a shortened form ofYahweh.
• names referring to Levantine deities (especially the storm god,Hadad) by theepithetBaal, meaninglord.

In later times, as the conflict betweenYahwism and the more popular pagan practices became increasingly intense, these names were censored andBaal was replaced withBosheth, meaningshameful 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.^[8]

• Abdiel: "Servant of God"
• Ariel: "lion of God"
• Bezalel: "in the shadow / under the protection of God"
• Danel: "El is judge" or "justice from El"
• Daniel: "God is my judge" or "justice from God"
• Elijah: "my God is YHWH"
• Elihu: "He is my God"
• Elisha: "my God is salvation"
• Elisheba (Elizabeth): "my God is an oath" or "my God is abundance"
• Immanuel: "God is with us"
• Yehezkel (Ezekiel): "God will strengthen"
• Gabriel: "man of God" or "power of God"
• Ishmael: "God listens"
• Israel: "who struggles with God"
• Lemuel: "Dedicated/Devoted to God"
• Mahalalel: "shining one of God"
• Mehujael: "God enlivens"
• Methusael: "Man of God"
• Michael: "Who is like God?"
• Nathaniel: "God-given" or "gift of God"
• Raphael: "God heals/God is great"
• Samuel: "God heard"
• Uriel: "God is my light"
• Uzziel: "God is my strength"

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 theFirst 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 "Y^ehō-", or "Yo". It was formerly thought to be abbreviated from theMasoretic pronunciation "Yehovah". There is an opinion^[9] that, as Yahweh is likely animperfective verb form, "Yahu" is its correspondingpreterite orjussive short form: compareyiŝt^ahawe^h (imperfective),yiŝtáhû (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".

• Abijah: "my father is YHWH"
• Adonijah: "YHWH is the Lord"
• Hezekiah: "YHWH strengthens"
• Isaiah: "YHWH is salvation"
• Jedediah: "friend of YHWH"
• Jehu: "YHWH is He"
• Jeremiah (Jeremy): "YHWH will raise"
• Joel: "YHWH is God"
• Jonathan: "YHWH has given"
• Joseph: "YHWH shall increase"
• Josiah: "YHWH saves"
• Matityahu (Matthew): "gift of YHWH"
• Micah/Micaiah: "who is like YHWH?"
• Nehemiah: "YHWH comforts"
• Obadiah: "servant of YHWH"
• Toviyahu (Tobias): "the goodness of YHWH"
• Uriah: "YHWH is my light"
• Uzziah: "YHWH is my strength"
• Yeho'ezer (Yoʼezer): "YHWH is my help"
• Yehoshua (Joshua)/Yeshua (Jesus): "YHWH will save"
• Yohanan (John): "graced by YHWH" or "YHWH is gracious"
• Zechariah (Zachary): "YHWH has remembered"
• Zephaniah: "hidden by YHWH"

In the table below, 13 theophoric names with "Yeho" have corresponding forms where the letterseh have been omitted. There is a theory byChristian Ginsburg that this is because Hebrew scribes omitted the "h", changing Jeho (יְהוֹ‎) into Jo (יוֹ‎), to make the start of "Y^eho-" names not sound like an attempt to pronounce the Divine Name.^[10][11]

• Jerubbaal, the alternate name ofGideon, variously translated as "Baal will contend"
• Jezebel: "glory to Baal"
• Ishbaal: "man of Baal"
• Balthazar andBelshazzar (Babylonian): "Baal, protect the king"
• Abijam: "my father isYam"
• Shalmaneser (Assyrian): "Shulmanu is foremost"
• Sennacherib (Assyrian): "Sîn has replaced the brothers"
• Pygmalion (Phoenician via Greek): "Pummay has given"
• Nebuchadnezzar (in Babylonian:Nabu-kudurri-usur): "Nabu, watch over my heir"
• Mordecai: "fromMarduk"
• Ben-Hadad: in Hebrew means "son ofHadad", but his originalAramaic name isHadadezer: "Hadad is help"
• Belteshazzar (in Babylonian:Beltu-šar-uṣur): "Bel, protect the king's life"
• Shadrach (in Babylonian: possiblyŠudur-Aku): "command of Aku"
• Meshach (in Babylonian: possiblyMi-ša-Aku): "who is what Aku is?"
• Abednego (in Babylonian: possiblyAbed-Nabu): "servant of Nabu"
• Sanballat (possibly in Akkadian:Sîn-uballit): "Sîn has kept alive," or (possibly in Arabic:Sanbat al-Lāt): "space ofal-Lāt"

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

• Gonzalo Rubio,Gods and Scholars: Mapping the Pantheon in Early Mesopotamia in Beate Pongratz-Leisten (ed.),Reconsidering the Concept of Revolutionary Monotheism, Eisenbrauns 2011
• Lexicon of Greek Personal NamesArchived 2020-03-22 at theWayback Machine
• Ogden Goelet, "Moses' Egyptian Name"
• When Can Muslims Use the Name Mohammed?: Plus, why don't English speakers name their children Jesus? by Michelle Tsai

• Theophoric names
• Greek words and phrases
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• Religious practices

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