Elkanah

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine personal name borne in the Hebrew Bible by several figures, including the father of the prophet Samuel
2. The name of a male figure from the Old Testament, notably the husband of Hannah and father of Samuel
3. A given name of Hebrew origin recorded in scripture, associated with a father of the prophet Samuel

Etymology: Elkanah is a Hebrew personal name, and its meaning is the surprising part: it is built from the words for "God" and "created," so it roughly means "God has created." In the Hebrew Bible, Elkanah is the husband of Hannah and the father of the prophet Samuel, and the name has long been used in English-speaking countries as a given name, especially in Puritan and Protestant communities that favoured Old Testament names. The name passed into English through the Bible itself. Its Hebrew form, אֶלְקָנָה, combines the divine name with a verb meaning "to create" or "to acquire," and the spelling came to English through the translations of the Scriptures. Because it is a proper noun, its history is mostly the history of how a biblical name was carried from one language to another.