The manner and frequency with which the names of deity are built into the actual names of people highlights their importance. One can easily see the desire as a human to incorporate the name of your deity into one’s own name, and this is done all throughout Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. It was a human’s way of honoring God by incorporating his name into the names of their children. For the Hebrews, the most cherished name you could give to your newborn son or daughter would be a name that would remind others of the God of heaven every time their child’s name would be spoken. Hundreds of examples abound in both Testaments.
Many Hebrew names contain “El”, E-l, at the end of their name, or sometimes at the beginning. The “E-l” part of their name refers to the “El” in Elohim, which means “God”. The name of Abraham’s son born of Hagar, the Egyptian, was Ishmael. It literally means “whom God hears.” The “e-l” ending reveals God. The name “Israel” today refers to a nation, but originally it referred to Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel” following the wrestling he experienced with the angel at the brook Jabbok. Israel means “he who strives with God.” The “el” ending of Israel refers, of course, to the “El” in Elohim.
Bethel, in Hebrew, means “house of God”. Again, the “el” ending is obvious. Likewise, the prophet Daniel invokes the “el” of the name of God, and Daniel means “God’s judge.” Ely was the name of the priest who supervised young Samuel, whose name meant “heard of God”. And the name “Ely” in Hebrew literally means “my God”.
Most are well familiar with the words that Christ uttered from the Cross when He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” which being interpreted, means “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” Elijah, a prominent prophet of the Old Testament, has both the name of God and the name of Jehovah compounded into one for his personal name “Elijah”. E-l refers to the “Elohim”, and the “j-a-h” ending refers to “Jehovah”. “Elijah” literally mean “the Lord is God”, and every time someone used the name Elijah, that’s what they were saying…the Lord is God. Close to that is Elijah’s successor, Elisha, which means “to whom God is salvation”.
So you can see how the ancient Hebrews quite literally built theological concepts of their God into the very names of their children. The feminine name Elizabeth has the “E-l” at the beginning and means “to whom God is the oath”. Emmanuel means “God with us”. Michael… “who is like unto God”. Gabriel means “man of God”.
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