Absalom (name)
Pronunciation | /ˈæbsələm/ |
---|---|
Gender | masculine |
Language(s) | Hebrew |
Origin | |
Meaning | "father of peace". |
Other names | |
See also | Axel |
Absalom (English pronunciation /ˈæbsələm/, Hebrew: אַבְשָלוֹם, Modern: Avshalom, Tiberian: ʼAḇšālôm, "father of peace"; Biblical Greek Αβεσσαλωμ) is a masculine first name from the Old Testament, where Absalom is a son of King David.[1]
The variant Hebrew: אֲבּישָׁלוֹם, Modern: Avishalom, Tiberian: ʼĂḇîyšālôm, "my father is peace" is used as the name of the father-in-law of Rehoboam in 1 Kings (15:2,10), who in 2 Chronicles 11:20,21 is referred to by the shorter form Avshalom.[2] The modern Scandinavian first name, Axel has developed (via Axelen) from Absalon, a 12th-century Danish archbishop and statesman.[3] The variant Absolon is a German surname.
The name was also used in medieval England (variants Absolon, Apsolon, Abselon). As in the biblical story, as Absalom was pursuing his father, King David, in the forest of Ephraim and has his long hair caught in a tree, the name appears to have been a nickname for a man with long or thick hair, as suggested by a passage in the Canterbury Tales,
Now was ther of that Chirche a parish clerk, The which that was ycleped Absolon ... Curl was his heer and as the gold it shoon.
This use as a nickname is possibly also the origin of Absalom as an English surname.[4] The name Absalom continued to be used in Anglo-Saxon Protestantism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Hebrew name was used among Palestinian Jews in the 19th to early 20th century and remains current in Israel; it is mostly anglicized as Avshalom, reflecting Modern Hebrew pronunciation.
First name[]
- Absalom
- Absalom (c. 100 BC), a son of Jewish High Priest John Hyrcanus
- Absalom Tatom (1742–1802), American politician
- Absalom Jones (1746–1818), African American abolitionist and clergyman
- Absalom Watkin (1787–1861), English political reformer
- Absalom Shade (c. 1793 – 1862), Canadian businessman and politician
- Absalom Harris Chappell (1801–1878), American politician and lawyer
- Absalom Baird (1824–1905), Union Army general in the American Civil War
- Absalom Shade Allan (1843 – after 1901), Canadian merchant and politician
- Absalom Austin Townsend (1810–1888), early pioneer of SW Wisconsin and founder of Rough and Ready, CA. WI state politician.
- Absalom Willis Robertson (1887–1971), American politician
- Absalon/Absolon
- Absalon (c. 1128 – 1201), a Danish archbishop and statesman
- Absolon Stumme (died 1499), German painter
- Avishalom/Avshalom
- Avishalom, the father-in-law of King Rehoboam of Judah
- Avshalom Feinberg (1889–1917), Jewish spy for Britain in World War I
- Avshalom Haviv (1926–1947), one of the Olei Hagardom
- Avshalom Kor (born 1950), Israeli linguist
- Avshalom Vilan (born 1951), Israeli politician and economist
- Avshalom Elitzur (born 1957), Israeli physicist and philosopher
Surname[]
Origin | |
---|---|
Region of origin | England |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Asplen, Aspling, Ashplant; Absolon |
"Absalom" is a rare English surname, recorded as early as in the early 13th century. It derives from the first name Absalom which became popular in England in the 12th century. The surname remained rare throughout its existence, but it gave rise to a number of variants, such as Asplen, and via the latter Aspling and Ashplant.[5]
The variant Absolon is found in England as well as in France and Germany, reaching Central Europe in the late medieval period, so that Absolon (feminine Absolonová) is now also a Czech and Slovak surname.
- Absalom
- Ted Absolom (born 1875), Australian rules footballer.
- Henry W.L. Absalom, a member of the Scientific Committee on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955–58, eponymous of Mount Absalom in Antarctica.
- Jack Absalom (born 1927), Australian artist
- Mike Absalom (born 1940), English folk singer-songwriter
- Absolon
- John Absolon (1815–1895), British watercolor painter
- Karel Absolon (1877–1960), Czech archaeologist, geographer, paleontologist, and speleologist
- Philip Absolon (born 1960), British artist and a founder member of the Stuckists
- Andrea Absolonová (1976–2004), Czech diver, and pornographic actress known as Lea De Mae
- Milada Absolonová, Czechoslovak slalom canoeist
- Monika Absolonová (born 27 1976), Czech singer and actress
References[]
- ^ Hanks, P. (2003). Dictionary of American Family Names: 3-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-19-508137-4. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
- ^ See Strong's Concordance H53.
- ^ "Danish names". behindthename.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
- ^ via a patronymic; one Absolon filius Apsolon is recorded in the Feet of Fines for Cambridgeshire in 1199, one Stephen Abselon is mentioned in the Curia Regis Rolls of Oxfordshire in 1208, and one Thomas Absolom is mentioned in the Calendar of Letter Books for the City of London in 1281. Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com[unreliable source?]
- ^ David Hey, Family Names and Family History, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006, p. 65.
See also[]
- All pages with titles beginning with Absalom
- All pages with titles beginning with Absolon
- All pages with titles containing Absalom
- All pages with titles containing Absolon
- Given names
- Surnames
- Given names of Hebrew language origin
- English masculine given names
- Surnames of English origin