Abrahams

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of biblical origin often used as a family name; in religious texts, relating to a patriarch considered the father of many descendants; a reference to individuals or families bearing this name
2. A last name derived from an ancient patriarchal figure in religious traditions; identifying members of a lineage connected to Abraham; a designation for people or groups sharing this heritage
3. A family name with roots in ancient scripture associated with a prominent ancestor; used to identify descendants or those affiliated with this lineage; a label for persons bearing this patronymic identity

Etymology: "Abrahams" is simply the plural of "Abraham", used as a surname for families descended from, or bearing the name of, a man called Abraham. The name itself is ancient: it comes from Hebrew "'aḇrāhām", which passed through Ancient Greek "Abrāā́m" and Late Latin "Ābrahām" before reaching English as "Abraham" in Old English, where it was used for the Biblical patriarch. Scholars disagree about what the Hebrew name meant. Genesis explains it as "father of a multitude", built from "'āb" ("father") and "hămôn" ("multitude"), but the name may be older than that explanation. The historian Thomas L. Thompson has proposed that its original sense had been forgotten by the time Genesis was written, and that it originally meant something like "father is exalted". Surnames of this kind are common in English because personal names drawn from the Bible were widely used as family names, and a plural form such as "Abrahams" typically marks a family line that once bore the name, or was the son of a man called Abraham.