Of the 173 names of persons given in the New Testament, 62 are of unknown meaning. Of these 60 are taken from the Greek, one Greek from Latin, and one from the Hebrew. In the Old Testament the majority of proper names are derived from the Hebrew; in the New Testament, from the Greek. In the latter, of the names dealing with the Deity. They are:
A large class of proper names for men and women is made up of adjectives denoting personal characteristics, such as
Names of things, and words referring to trades or avocations were taken as proper names:
Some names seem to have been suggested by particular circumstances:
Names of animals and plants are not frequent, the only example being
Names derived from numbers are
Names without Christian significance and probably derived from pagan mythology are:
"Bar" in a name means "son of," e.g.,
There is only one word derived from a color,
Names derived from kindred are
This dictionary contains not only definitions and explanations of every subject in Religion, Scripture, tradition, doctrine, morals, sacraments, rites, customs, devotions and symbolism, but also accounts of the Church in every continent, country, diocese; missions, notable Catholic centers, cities, and places with religious names; religious orders, church societies, sects and false religions. It has brief articles also on historical events and personages, on the Old Testament and New, and on popes, prelates, priests, men and women of distinction, showing what the Church has done for civilization and correcting many errors which have hitherto passed for history.Wikipedia
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