[Avodah] strange names in Hebrew

[Lisa Liel]

On 2/14/2012 10:37 PM, Simon Montagu wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 4:54 AM, Lisa Liel<lisa at starways.net>  wrote:
>    
>> 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.
>>      
> Ach is also no problem, since KBH refers to us as "achoti kalla". IIRC
> from university, Am as a name element is believed to mean "uncle"
> rather than "nation", so it may be equivalent to Dod as a DN.
>    
Those are interesting.  Thanks.  Do you know on what basis Am is 
considered to mean uncle?

> Or more loosely, any word for a close relation can act as a DN. Bear
> in mind that names are often archaic, both linguistically and
> theologically, and not representative of contemporary usage and
> belief.
True.  Considering how many Jews today, even frum Jews, have names like 
Yisraela or Gavriella, feminizing the masculine name, but in practice, 
kind of making the name a little problematic, I suppose such things 
could have been possible in the past as well.

Lisa