Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>]

Hi Isaac,

On Thu, 6 Oct 2011 19:32:35 -0400, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> I don't know and am not interested in the hypothetical "Hurrian", but  
> a Hebrew name is not a word and may not mean what it appears to mean  
> if it were a word. One may think that YAEL is an Ibex, but it needs  
> not be so, the name may just happen to consist of the consonants Yod- 
> Aiyn-Lamed.
> In my humble opinion it is out of the question that the name YICXAQ  
> יצחק means 'he will laugh'.

What, Isaac, no sense of humour :) ?

Seriously, though, it is true that names need not have meanings.  Lately,
in the US at least, there has been a marked increase in the number of names
that have been "made up", i.e., are chosen by parents on the basis of
"sounding nice", rather than being either traditional names or names having
meanings in themselves.  But this does seem to be a distinctly recent
phenomemon.  In ancient times it seems that name usually contained meaning,
either directly, or indirectly by way of a person being named after someone
else.

-- 
Will Parsons