In the unfortunate son and grandson of the good Josiah (yielded to the Lord), we see some curious changes of name. The son was called both Eliakim and Jehoiakim, in which the verb meant “will establish or judge;” the only difference was in the Divine Name that preceded it. This miserable prince died during the first siege of Jerusalem, and his son Jehoiachin (appointed of the Lord), reigned for three months till the city was taken, and he was carried away to Babylon. The above-mentioned seems to have been his proper name, but he was commonly called Jeconiah, and Jeremiah denounces his punishment without the prefix, as “this man Coniah.”
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiachin was brought out of prison, and lived in some degree of ease and favour at Babylon; and by Greek authors a sort of compromise was made between his name and his father’s, and he becomes sometimes Jeconias, and sometimes Joacim.
There was an early tradition that Joachim had been the name of the father of the Blessed Virgin, but her private history did not assume any great prominence till about 1500, and in consequence the names of her parents are far less often used before than after that era. Her mother’s name, as we shall see, had a history of its own; and was earlier in general use than that of her father, which scarcely came into England at all, and was better known to us when Murat ascended the throne of Naples than at any other time. Being however found in the apocryphal Gospels, it was in use in the Greek Church, and is therefore to be found in Russia. Its forms are,
| German. | Bavarian. | Frisjan. | Swiss. |
| Joachim | Jochum | Hime | Jocheli |
| Jochim | Jochem | ||
| Achim | |||
| Chim | |||
| Spanish. | French. | Italian. | Danish. |
| Joaquim | Joachim | Gioachimo | Joachim |
| Joquim | Gioachino | Johum | |
| Joa | Giovachino | ||
| Russian. | Polish. | Lett. | Illyrian. |
| Joachim | Jachym | Juzziz | Accim |
| Akim | Jukkums | Jacim |
The Germans, French, and Portuguese have the feminine Joachime, Joaquima; or, in Illyrian, Acima.[[16]]
The Book of Judges has not furnished many names to collective Europe. Caleb, the faithful spy, who alone finally accompanied Joshua into the Land of Promise out of all the 600,000 who had come out of Egypt, had a name meaning a dog, seldom copied except by the Puritan taste, and only meeting in one language a personal name of similar signification, namely, the Irish cu (gen.) con.
Caleb’s daughter, Achsah, probably from the shortness and pretty sound of her name, which means a tinkling ornament for the ancle, has a good many namesakes in remote village schools, where it is apt to be spelt Axah. Tirzah (pleasantness) was one of those five daughters of Zelophehad, whose heiresship occupies two chapters of the Book of Numbers. She probably was the origin of Thirza, the name of Abel’s wife in Gessner’s idyll of the Death of Abel, a great favourite among the lower classes in England, whence Thyrza has become rather a favourite in English cottages.
Gideon (a feller or destroyer) seems by his martial exploits to have obtained some admirers among the Huguenots of the civil wars of France, for Gédéon was in some small use among them.
The name of the mighty Nazarene, whose strength was in his hair, is not clearly explained. Schimschon seems best to represent the Hebrew sound, but the Greek had made it Σαμψσων; and our translation, Samson. Some translate it splendid son, others as the diminutive of sun.
The Greek Church and her British daughter did not forget the mighty man of valour, and Samson was an early Welsh Bishop and saint, from whom this became a monastic appellation, as in the instance of Mr. Carlyle’s favourite Abbot Samson. The French still call it Simson, which is perhaps more like the original; and our Simpson and Simkins may thus be derived from it, when they do not come from Simon, which was much more frequent.