biblical (Old Testament) boys' names

[tvmum1976]

which ones do you like? Am prepared to accept the more 'extreme' end (we have a DS with a kind of extreme biblical name) but like the more common ones too. Any suggestions? Thank you! (NB we are jewish so old testament is better!)

Elijah
Elias

two of my all time faves.

love those- thanks- especially Elijah. But weirdly not as keen on nn Eli. Not sure why. Don't know if we could force everyone to use the full thing. Btw do you know any baby Elijahs? We are in the US and it is pretty common here but not sure about in the UK (where we will be moving back to soon....)

Absalom
Asher
Eleazar
Ephraim
Esau
Ezra
Gideon
Ishmael
Japeth
Mordecai
Phinehas
Uriah

Jonah
Adam
Ishmael
Isaac
Ezekiel

Josiah
Ezra
Isaiah
Jeremiah (might sound like a misery guts though!)
Solomon (very under used fab name)
Abraham with Bram for short (love Bram as a nn)
Noah
Daniel
Nehemiah

but the best has to be Isaac (not remotely biased as that is my ds

Azariah

ooh love some of these (and love that my DS's name got a mention and high praise :-)) Thanks! keep them coming.

ps steppenmum would you pronounce Isaiah "eye s-eye-ah" or "eye- zay- ah"?
Thanks!

Our shortlist for DS2 consisted of: Simeon, Levi, Asher, Matthew, Michael & Peter.

Names that also would've been on the list but were discounted due to knowing children with the same name, sounding silly with our surname or being too similar to family names were: Joshua, David, Samuel, Jesse, Isaac, Joseph, Noah, Benjamin, Elijah. We know 2 Elijahs, both about 18 months old - it's definitely getting more popular here.

I've just noticed the order I put the names in - wouldn't 'Benjamin Elijah' be such a lovely name?! I wonder if I could convince DH to change our surname!

Oh yes, how could I forget?! We considered Isaiah for a while, & Ishmael too, but DH decided he didn't like any potential nn for either. He's just awkward.

FWIW, I'd pronounce it eye-zy-uh.

Love Simeon, Gideon, Asher, Abraham (Bram), Adam.

Well my niece has called her new baby Ezekiel-nn Zeke which I have come to like very much-never heard of another one.
Zacchaeus is fun too and Ishmael.

Oh I LOVE this thread! We had decided on Reuben for a boys name (had a girl) but Apparantly dh may be going off it so we may need to think of something else. Reading this though has made me fall in love with Elijah, so thanks!

Zachariah, Noah, Malachi, Asher, Simeon

I know a couple of Elijahs - both aged around 7

Love Ezra can't be shortened really either. Caleb. Joseph, Seth, Solomon. All my 3 boys are old testament names.

Love all these suggestions! thanks so much!
I started a thread on Zephaniah (nn Zeph or Zephy) a while back and got eaten alive. I still like it though- thought it could be a similar but less common Zach (we have a good friend who has just called their baby zach)
Am I delusional?

I like zephiniah. People round here can't pronunce malachi so we kept them short and simple. :-)

ha! we live in a place where every child seems to have a weird unpronounceable name (although more in the Rainbow/ moon unit type mould) so zephaniah would probably slip by unnoticed. But don't want the poor boy to get a massive shock on return to the UK!

I am in the US too, so no good for knowing if there are lots of Elijahs in the UK currently. sorry.

I think english pronunciation is Is - zy - ah and American Is -zay ah

The American pronunciation does sound very 'American' to me

I love Reuben and Gideon too.

Less keen on Levi, it is pretty popular and chavy round here.

Like Elijah because it means something like Given by God, which is lovely.

Don't like Ishmael, it's origins make me sad. depends if you mind about the origins of the name.

steppenmum- love your taste. can you tell me what you think of Zephaniah/ zeph/zephy? would be a good measure for me I think!

I live in a Jewish area. The one Eli I know has the full name that is pronounced Eli-a-hoo. I don't know how you spell it. I do know a Judah too but that makes me raise an eyebrow TBH.