Deborah found no favour as a name except among English Puritans, and has acquired a certain amount of absurdity from various literary associations, which prevent ‘Deb.’ from being used except by the peasantry.
Of Rebekah’s two daughters-in-law[daughters-in-law], Rachel signified a ewe.
Dante made l’antica Rachele, with her beautiful eyes, the type of heavenly contemplation, ever gazing at the mirror that reflected heavenly glory; but her name was not popular, although the Manx princess, otherwise called Affrica, assumed it upon her marriage with Somerled, Lord of the Isles, somewhere about the eleventh century.
But Puritan days loved the sound of the word, and “that sweet saint who sat by Russell’s side” has given it a place in many an English family. Polish Jews call it Rahel; in which form it was borne by the metaphysical lady who became the wife of Varnhagen von Ense.
| English. | German. | Bavarian. |
| Matthias | Matthæus | Mathies |
| Mathies | Matthew | Mahe |
| Mat | Matthes | Hies |
| Matthis | Hiesel | |
| Mathe | ||
| Swiss. | Swedish. | Danish. |
| Mathias | Mathias | Mathias |
| Thies | Mats | Mads |
| Thiesli | ||
| Friesland. | French. | Italian. |
| Matthies | Matthieu | Matteo |
| Hise | Macé | Maffeo |
| Hisse | Feo | |
| Mattia | ||
| Spanish. | Russian. | Polish. |
| Mateo | Matfei | Mateusz |
| Matvej | Maciei | |
| Maciek | ||
| Matyas | ||
| Hungarian. | Slovak. | Esthonian. |
| Matyas | Matevz | Maddis |
| Mate | Tevz | Mats |
| Mattija |
Rachel’s less beloved and less favoured sister had a name that came from lawah (hanging upon, dependence, or, as in her case it is explained, weariness)—Leah, in French Lea, in Italian Lia, under which title Dante makes her the emblem of active and fruitful, as is her sister of meditative, love. It was from the same word that she named her third son Levi, when she hoped that her husband would be more closely united or dependent on her. Levi’s name was carried on into the Gospel times, and belonged to the publican who was called from the receipt of custom to become an Apostle and an Evangelist. His Aramean name was, however, that by which he calls himself in his own narrative, or more correctly speaking, by its Græcized form. The old Hebrew Mattaniah (gift of the Lord) was probably the origin of both the names that we have in the Greek Testament as Ματθαῖος and Ματθίας, Matthæus and Matthias as the Latin renders them. Some, however, make the first mean a faithful man; but it is not possible to distinguish between the various forms that have risen out of the two among persons who, probably, had no idea that the Apostle who supplied the place of Judas was a different person from the Evangelist. The Emperor Charles V. was born on St. Matthias' day, and the text “The lot fell on Matthias” was regarded as a good augury, whence Matthias came into favour in Austria and its dependencies. The name has been more popular in Germany and its dependencies. Matteo heads the Milanese Visconti, who were mostly named after the Evangelists.
Apostolic names are particularly common in Bavaria, probably from the once frequent representations of the Mystery of the Passion. In Germany, SS. Matthew and Matthias have produced the surnames Matthies, Matys, Thiess, and Thiessen, Latinized after a queer scholarly fashion into Thysius.
Section III.—Jacob.
The twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah were called from the circumstances of their birth, Esau, the hairy, and Ja’akob, the latter word being derived from âkêb, the heel, because in the words of the Prophet “he took his brother by the heel in the womb.” This, the action of tripping up, confirmed the mother’s faith in the previous prediction that “the elder should serve the younger,” and thus that the younger should supplant the elder. “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he hath supplanted, me these two times,” was accordingly the cry of Esau.
By the time of the return from Babylon we find two if not three persons mentioned as bearing the name of Akkub, and that this was meant for Jacob, is shown by its etymology; as it likewise means the supplanter, by its likeness in sound to Yacoub, the form still current among the Arabs, and by the fact that the Akkub, who in the book of Nehemiah stands up with Ezra to read the law to the people, is in the book of Esdras, written originally in Greek, called Ἰάκοβος (Jakobos).