On the Emergence of the Short Form in Hebrew Names

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates the emergence of the ending in Hebrew personal names. All available epigraphic evidence is first gathered and then assessed. This source of information is essential to understand when the ending came into use and gained currency and to locate this phenomenon in an absolute chronology. The appearance of the short form receives here a socio-historical explanation. The author believes, in fact, that the shift from the ending to its shorter version should be read against the backdrop of the Assyrian domination during the second half of the eighth century and the seventh century BCE. More specifically, the deportation into the land of Israel of foreign groups of people contributed to the assimilation of the theophoric element in Hebrew names to the hypocoristic ending -īya, attested all over the Ancient Near East.