Here, too, it may be best to mention the prophetic name by which the Humanity of the Messiah was revealed to Isaiah—Immanuel (God with us), Imm meaning with; an being the pronoun.
The Greeks appear to have been the first to take up this as a Christian name, and Manuel Komnenos made it known in Europe. The Italians probably caught it from them as Manovello; and the Spaniards and Portuguese were much addicted to giving it, especially after the reign of Dom Manoel, one of the best kings of the noble house of Avis. Manuelita is a feminine in use in the Peninsula. When used as a masculine, as it is occasionally in England and France, the first letter is generally changed to E.[[15]]
[15]. Proper Names of the Bible; Michaelis; Grimm, Deutsche[Deutsche] Mythologie.
Section IV.—Joshua, &c.
A still more sacred personal Divine Name was revealed to Moses upon Mount Horeb—the name that proclaimed the eternal self-existence of Him who gave the mission to the oppressed Israelites.
The meaning of that Name we know, in its simple and ineffable majesty; the pronunciation we do not know, for the most learned doubt whether that the usual substitute for it may not be a mistake. The Jews themselves feared to pronounce it commonly in reading their scriptures, and substituted for it Adonai, that which is indicated by the ‘LORD,’ in capital letters in our Bibles, while the French try to give something of the original import by using the word l'Éternel, and thus the tradition of the true sound has been hidden from man, and all that is known is that the three consonants employed in it were J, or rather Y V H.
Yet, though this holy name was only indicated in reading, it was very frequent in combination in the names of the Israelites, being the commencement of almost all those that with us begin with je or jo, the termination of all those with iah. Nay, the use of the name in this manner has received the highest sanction, since it was by inspiration that Moses added to Hoshea, salvation—the syllable that made it Jehoshea or Joshua, “the Lord my salvation,” fitly marking out the warrior, who, by Divine assistance, should save Israel, and place them safely in the promised land.
That name of the captain of the salvation of Israel seems to have been untouched again till the return from the captivity, when probably some unconscious inspiration directed it to be given to the restorer of the Jews, that typical personage, the high priest, in whom we find it altered into Jeshua; and the Greek soon made it into the form in which it appears as belonging to the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, and which, when owned by the apostate high priest, under Antiochus Epiphanes, was made by him from Jesus into Jason, to suit the taste of the Greek rulers. It had become common among the Jews; it was the current name for the ancient Joshua, when it was assumed by Him Who alone had a right to it.
A feast in honour of that Name “to which every knee shall bow,” has been marked by the Western Church, and it is probably in consequence of this that the Spanish Americans actually have adopted this as one of their Christian names—a profanation whence all the rest of Christendom has shrunk. There too a and ita are added to it to make it feminine.