Many Americans researching their ancestry run into ancestors with religion-inspired names like Constance, Faith, Salvation, Perseverance. Piety, Redemption, Prudence, and many others. These are technically called theophoric names, names derived from or related to a god.
Some of the personal theophoric names were quite unwieldy. In one family in my genealogical research, there is a man named Indignation, as in God’s righteous indignation at sin. Not surprisingly, Indignation went by the personal name Ignatious.
Imagine being a Puritan woman with the personal name of Fight-the -Good-Fight-of-Faith or a man named Flee-Fornication.
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah had two sons whose names he said God gave to him for “signs and wonders in Israel.” (Isaiah 8:18) The sons were Shear-Jashub (Isaiah 7:3) and Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:3).
The name Shear-Jashub ((Isaiah 7:3) translates from the Hebrew as “the remnant shall return.” Isaiah carried this son with him when he went to confront King Ahaz of Judah. He told King Ahaz that if he would just trust in God, then God would bless him. Instead, Ahaz asked Tiglath -pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. The help arrived, but at a great price. Judah was eventually destroyed with only a remnant remaining to return to the land.
The name Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:3) translates loosely from the Hebrew as “hasten to seize the prey and to take away the spoil.” A more literal translation is “spoil speeds prey hastes.” The name is a reference to the impending conquest of Samaria and Damascus by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (734 - 732 BC) and is a warning to Judah, which wwould be conquered later.
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