Saturday, September 23, 2023

The name Solomon is an anglicization ultimately of the Hebrew name שׁלמה, or Shlomo, but not before many languages made slight adjustments to it. The Hebrew name שׁלמה (Shlomo), most famous as the name of the third King of Israel, likely originated either from the Semitic root שׁלם, (sh-l-m), meaning "peace" (cf. shalōm) and "completion," or as a theophoric reference to the Canaʿanite deity Shalem mentioned in inscriptions from Ugarit. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) translates שׁלמה (Shlomo) as Σολομών (Solomōn), giving us the familiar English name. Still, the Semitic version also persisted in the form of the Aramaic name שׁלמה (Šlāmā) and a Syriac equivalent, ܫܠܝܡܘܢ (Šleymūn), which later led to the Arabic name سليمان (Sulaiman or Sulayman). All of these names are considered to be derivatives of the name of King Solomon.