Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 02/11/2005 21:27, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

> ...
>
> HH: Most female names do have a pleasant connotation. Some of my 
> female friends are named Grace, Joy, Celeste, Dawn, and Melody. Other 
> names include Felicia, Constance, and Desiree. Many names for women 
> have positive meanings even if we don't realize it. If you trace the 
> etymology, that is what you find. Please breeze through the following 
> list and see. I will give the part of the list for the letter A. 
> After the name will be its meaning. These are names from all around 
> the world, so positive messages are a universal tendency. ...

This may be a universal tendency, but it is not completely universal. I 
have met women, in the Middle Eastern country where I was working, whose 
names clearly reflect the father's disappointment at having yet another 
daughter. So Karl's suggestion that some Israelite women might have had 
such names is not necessarily wrong.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/