Biblical baby names and what they mean
44 names families actually use, each with the verse it first appears in and the meaning Easton's dictionary gives it. 20 of them belong to someone you can meet in a story on this site, and those stories are linked, so you can read about the person before you hand their name to a child.
By Hannah Whitford, Childhood Bible Stories · Last updated September 2026 · Data as of September 2026
Names that first appear in the Old Testament
The oldest names on the list, and the ones with the most Hebrew behind them.
Names that first appear in the New Testament
Greek forms of older Hebrew names, and a few that appear nowhere earlier.
| Name | Meaning | First appears | Story on this site | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke | — | 2 Corinthians 13:13 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| John | — | Matthew 3:1 | Palm Sunday | Create a book with this name → |
| Matthew | Gift of God | Matthew 9:9 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| James | — | Matthew 4:21 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| Elizabeth | — | Luke 1:5 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| Mary | — | Matthew 1:16 | The Birth of Jesus | Create a book with this name → |
| Anna | Grace | Luke 2:36 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| Lydia | — | Acts 16:14 | — | Create a book with this name → |
| Tabitha | gazelle | Acts 9:36 | — | Create a book with this name → |
Some of them are blunt
Baby-name sites tend to smooth these out. Leah becomes “delicate” rather than “weary”, Caleb becomes “faithful” rather than “a dog”, and Rebecca becomes almost anything other than “a noose”. We print what Easton prints, because a softened meaning is not a meaning, it is a compliment.
It is also worth remembering that the meaning is rarely why a name lasted. Leah is on this list four thousand years later not because of what her name means but because of how her story goes. Read the story. The name will look different afterwards.
8 of the 44 names here have no meaning listed. That is not an oversight. Easton does not gloss every name he covers, and for a few he gives no entry at all, so where there is nothing to cite we leave the space empty.
Free printables while you decide
Coloring pages, a reading plan and verse cards, sent as one free pack you can print at home.
Questions about biblical names
What do biblical names mean?
Most Bible names are ordinary Hebrew or Greek words, and a good many of them are short sentences about God. Elijah is "whose God is Jehovah". Daniel is "God is my judge". Others are plainer than families expect: Leah is "weary" and Caleb is "a dog". These are the glosses Easton's Bible Dictionary gives, not our own readings, which is why some of them are blunt.
Where does the meaning of a name come from?
From Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, published in 1897 and long out of copyright, which opens each name with what the name itself means before going on to the person. We take only that opening phrase. Where Easton starts straight in on the person and never glosses the name, this page leaves the space empty instead of guessing.
Which Bible name should I choose for a baby?
That is not a question a list can answer. What a list can do is show you the first verse the name appears in and the story where you would meet the person who carried it, so you can read that story before you decide rather than after.
What does the first appearance column mean?
It is the earliest verse in the Bible where anyone carrying that name appears. Several people often share a name, and this is the first of them, so it is not always the person you had in mind. Elijah's first appearance is the prophet, but Nathan's is one of David's sons rather than the prophet Nathan.
Are these names only for Christian families?
No. Many of them, Noah and Ethan and Hannah among them, sit near the top of national name lists in countries where most families would not describe themselves as religious at all. A name can be chosen for its sound alone and still carry its history.
Methodology and sources
Every reference on this page is read out of a published dataset by a script, and every row in that dataset records which file it came from. Where the dataset has nothing, the cell is empty. The story links are matched by name against the people our own story pages cover, so a link appears only where the person really is in that story.
Name meanings and first appearances
Meanings: Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain, via the Theographic Bible Metadata distribution. First references: STEPBible TIPNR, Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (Tyndale House Cambridge).. View the source.
Licence: Meanings are public domain (Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1897, by M. G. Easton; copyright long expired). The Theographic distribution that carries the text is CC BY-SA 4.0 and is credited. First references are CC BY 4.0 (STEPBible-Data, Tyndale House Cambridge). · Source file dated September 2026 · Pulled September 2026
Meanings come from Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, published in 1897 by M. G. Easton and long out of copyright. Easton opens a name with what the name means and then continues into the person, so we keep only that opening gloss and record the exact entry it came from; where he opens by describing the person instead, the cell stays empty rather than printing a description as a meaning. First appearance comes from STEPBible's proper-noun file and is the earliest verse in canonical order where anyone with that name is recorded, so where several people share a name it is the first of them rather than the famous one.
Story links point to our own retellings. The full reading plan puts them in order.
By Hannah Whitford, Childhood Bible Stories · Last updated September 2026 · Data as of September 2026
Behind most of these names is a story worth reading tonight.
Gentle retellings of the Bible stories these people come from, free, in the order they happened.