Word study

Name

6 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: name, named, names. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “name” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שֵׁם shêmnametranslated this way 699 times of its 769 uses · Strong’s H8034Noun  ·  Translated: name 553, names 65, named 61, him 20

    Genesis 2:11 The name of the first river is the Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

    Exodus 1:1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:

    Full study and all 703 verses →
  • קָרָא qârâcall, proclaim, readtranslated this way 67 times of its 709 uses · Strong’s H7121Verb  ·  Translated: called 211, call 104, named 58, summoned 50

    Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

    Exodus 2:10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”

    Full study and all 663 verses →
  • שֻׁם shumnametranslated this way 10 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8036Noun  ·  Translated: name 5, names 3, man named 1, caused his name 1

    Ezra 5:1 Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.

    Daniel 2:20 and declared: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • זֵכֶר zêkerremembrance, memorialtranslated this way 3 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H2143Noun  ·  Translated: memory 11, remembered 3, renown 3, name 2

    Psalm 30:4 Sing to the LORD, O you His saints, and praise His holy name.

    Hosea 12:5 the LORD God of Hosts, the LORD is His name of renown.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 2 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb  ·  Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
  • אֲשֶׁר ăsherparticle of relationtranslated this way 2 times of its 3,225 uses · Strong’s H834Pronoun  ·  Translated: that 886, who 451, as 247, which 160Full study and all 2,844 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὄνομα ónomaname, character, reputationtranslated this way 209 times of its 214 uses · Strong’s G3686Noun  ·  Translated: name 163, named 35, names 11, called 3

    Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

    Mark 3:17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),

    Full study and all 203 verses →
  • καλέω kaléōI call, invite, nametranslated this way 6 times of its 144 uses · Strong’s G2564Verb  ·  Translated: called 84, invited 13, call 11, calls 7

    Matthew 1:25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.

    Luke 1:59 On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.

    Full study and all 136 verses →
  • λέγω légōI say, speaktranslated this way 5 times of its 993 uses · Strong’s G3004Verb  ·  Translated: said 216, tell 164, say 105, saying 86

    Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.

    Matthew 13:55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

    Full study and all 936 verses →
  • ὀνομάζω onomázōI give a name to, mentiontranslated this way 3 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G3687Verb  ·  Translated: designated 2, named 2

    Luke 6:14 Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;

    Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about name: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.