NamesMyths & disputes

Jacob

The patriarch's name, Yaʿăqōḇ, was probably a short prayer, 'may (God) protect'. Genesis puns on 'heel', and the name lives on as Yaʿqūb across the Islamic world (Turkish Yakup), Yankev in Yiddish, Yakov in Russia, Yakob in Armenia, Yaʿqob in Ethiopia and Jakob in Germany. Its Latin form also gave rise, separately, to James.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

Jacob 'means' heel-grabber or supplanter. That is the Genesis narrator's wordplay. Most scholars read the name as a shortened 'may God protect'.

The road to English

From Biblical Hebrew to Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Turkish

From Biblical Hebrew to Yiddish

From Biblical Hebrew to Modern Hebrew

From Arabic to Persian, Urdu

From Arabic to Malay

From Arabic to Hausa

From Koine Greek to Armenian

From Biblical Hebrew to Ge'ez, Amharic

From Late Latin to Middle High German, German

From Late Latin to Polish

From Late Latin to Hungarian

From English to American English

From Koine Greek to Old Church Slavonic, Old East Slavic, Russian

From Koine Greek to Mandarin Chinese

750 BCEBiblical Hebrew

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.