Are any of these names in Tanach?

I'm due in 7 weeks b'h and dh and I are having a very hard time coming up with boys names. He wants names from the Torah such as binyomin, yehuda, michoel, yosef, yaakov etc. but I happen not to like them.
I like the following names but do any of them come from people in Tanach?
Ezra
Noam
Yishai
I happen to love Noam but don't want to suggest it until I know where it comes from.

Any other names like these you can think of?

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Ezra Hasofer (a book of Tanach is Ezra)
Yishai is Dovid Hamelech's father

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Ezra is from K'suvim (Ezra and Nechemia led klal Yisroel when they returned from Galus Bavel)
Yishai is Dovid HaMelech's father

Noam may not have been a name (means "pleasantness"), but the word at least appears in Tanach ("shivti b'veis Hashem kol yemei chayai; lachazos b'noam Hashem u'levaker b'Heichalo" -- passuk in Tehillim)

ETA: my brother's name is Ezra. Smile

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Platinum Member Joined: May 07 2008 Posts: 8984

Noam may not be from Tanach, but it still has strong religious associations. "Achat Sha'alti...shivti beveit haShem kol yemei chayai, Lachazot beNOAM hsShem ulevaker beheichalo".

"Deracheha darchei NOAM vechol netivoteha shalom"

There's a sefer NOAM Elimelech written by R' Elimelech of Lizhensk

From Yedid Nefesh: "...ana Kel na refa na lah behar'ot lah NOAM zivecha"

Of course Ezra is from the Tanach. Ezra HaSofer.
Yishai (Jesse in English) is David HaMelech's father.

Platinum Member Joined: May 07 2008 Posts: 8984

There's no explaining why the names of some Tanach good guys make the Hit Parade for centuries on end while others go in and out of fashion and still others remain so obscure as to have their provenance questioned when they're unearthed after several millennia.

Your typical yeshiva classroom full of Yaakov-Moshe-Dovid-Yitzchak-Yoseph-Yehoshuas is too, too boring IMO. Some names are clearly the Biblical equivalent of Caspar Milquetoast, and no one in his right mind would name a child after Machlon or Kilion, but there are many beautiful yet underutilized given names in our religious writings. I've always had a soft spot for Shemaya and Avtalyon, don't ask me why. I've met exactly one Shemaya but never an Avtalyon.

Also, why **not** do as our matriarchs and patriarchs did and give our children names that express our feelings about or hopes for them, as opposed to simply recycling the same six and a half names ad infinitum?

Yishai is my husband's name. Smile

Yes, it's Tanachi, as people have said. Ezra, too, though I don't think it's so uncommon.

But, actually, my husband and I have had this conversation before--he, too, prefers uncommon names. Most of his favorites are in Nevi'im, I think-- what I remember offhand is Zecharya, Yirmiya, Ovadya, Yechezkel.

There's also Yeshaya, a Navi, and close enough to "Yishai" that people are constantly calling my husband that. Fairly common in Litvish circles after the Chazon Ish (Avraham Yeshaya), but I think Yeshaya by itself isn't so much.

Hope that helps, OP! B'sha'ah tova!

Gold Member Joined: May 09 2010 Posts: 2161

I have a Boaz. Good Tanakhi name that is virtually unused. A forefather of David haMelech, a righteous man. Not sure why no one names for him but Avraham's servant Eliezer gets his name used all the time.

Ezra was on our list as well as Noam, when we were picking names for DS.

We ran the name (Boaz) by our very black-hat yeshivish rabbi to see if he thought the name was okay, and he said it was good and loved the reasons we picked it.

I don't know if these are the type of names you are looking for but there are many "modern" Hebrew names that one hears that are really of biblical provenance, just slightly obscure. Examples: Ido, Eliav, Matanya, Avidan, Netanel, Itay, Carmi, Ohad, Eilon, Aviad etc.

It's not like naming after someone is new, I think the first occurence is in the Talmud.

Not everyone puts creativity before honoring our ancestors who made us alive. Not everyone even values a creative name. Many value a sentimental attachment, a long life segula to your parent, a good role model or a history. Because in 10 years you may not like Snir-Shaili anymore but hopefully the aforementioned things remain...

I don't think most "modern" names are even pretty enough that it's worth forgetting our names... so let's not bash Moshe Yitzchak Yaakov.

Italians are known to use real but very rare names: Hulda, Boaz, etc.
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Posted: Tue, Jun 26 2012, 10:38 am Post subject:

If you figure that there was a time period when many Jews were illiterate or not very learned, it makes sense they'd stick to the basic avraham yitchak yaakov or naming after grandparents.
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My daughter had two Nadav's in her class at one point. I also known an Itamar. He's Sephardi.
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