[Avodah] strange names in Hebrew

[Lisa Liel]

I teach a class on the kings of Judah and Israel, and last week we were 
talking about the structure of Semitic names.  Most Semitic names take 
the form stem-DN or DN-stem, where DN is a divine name, and the stem is 
a noun, or a verb, or an adjective.  This is true of us as well as of 
other people who spoke Semitic tongues.  For us, usually the DN is 
either as in Dani_*el*_ or or Yirmi_*yahu*_.  Sometimes a stem-DN name 
also appears as DN-stem, the classic example being Yehoyachin king of 
Judah, who is called Yechoniah in Megillat Esther.

But there are three other DNs used in Jewish names.  Or maybe not DNs, 
but they serve the same purpose in the construction of names.  These are 
Av, Ach and Am, or father, brother and nation.  We have Ammihud and 
Rechavam, Achiezer and Avichayil.  And I can understand how Av serves as 
a DN, since Hashem is Avinu she'ba-shamayim.  But the other two puzzle 
me.  And I wondered whether anyone here has ever come across any 
discussion of names like that.

As a cute bit of trivia, the name Rechavam (Rehoboam) is a Hebrew 
cognate of Hammurabi.  The DN "hammu" is usually translated by 
Assyriologists as "the divine kinsman", but that's no good for us.

Lisa

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