آدَم
Ādam
Adam
The earthling, named for the soil from which he was shaped
إِدْرِيس
Idrīs
Enoch (traditional identification)
The studious one, or a name with no Arabic home at all
نُوح
Nūḥ
Noah
Rest in Hebrew, lamentation in Arabic. The same root, inverted.
هُود
Hūd
Hud
The one who returns, sent to call a people back to God
صَالِح
Ṣāliḥ
Saleh
The righteous one, sent to preach righteousness to Thamūd
إِبْرَاهِيم
Ibrāhīm
Abraham
Father of multitudes in Hebrew, yet Arabic ears hear nothing
لُوط
Lūṭ
Lot
A name that gave Arabic a word, rather than the other way around
إِسْمَاعِيل
Ismāʿīl
Ishmael
God hears. Born of a mother's answered prayer.
إِسْحَاق
Isḥāq
Isaac
She laughed, and the name preserves that laughter across languages
يَعْقُوب
Yaʿqūb
Jacob
The supplanter in Hebrew, silent in Arabic
يُوسُف
Yūsuf
Joseph
God will increase, but only Hebrew speakers hear it
شُعَيْب
Shuʿayb
Shuʿayb (sometimes identified with Jethro)
The little branch, a diminutive name for a man of the people
أَيُّوب
Ayyūb
Job
The returning one, or a name whose meaning is itself debated
ذُو الْكِفْل
Dhū al-Kifl
Dhul-Kifl (possibly Ezekiel)
The guarantor, a title more than a name
مُوسَى
Mūsā
Moses
Born of water in Hebrew, born of Egypt in history, and Arabic is silent
هَارُون
Hārūn
Aaron
A name even Hebrew cannot fully explain
دَاوُود
Dāwūd
David
The beloved, a name that echoes love in Arabic
سُلَيْمَان
Sulaymān
Solomon
Peace made audible, the shin-to-sin bridge between Solomon and salam
إِلْيَاس
Ilyās
Elijah
My God is YHWH, a theology embedded in a name Arabic cannot decode
الْيَسَع
al-Yasaʿ
Elisha
My God saves, another name Arabic receives but cannot read
يُونُس
Yūnus
Jonah
The dove, a gentle meaning Arabic speakers never hear
زَكَرِيَّا
Zakariyyā
Zechariah
God remembers, a meaning half-visible through cognate roots
يَحْيَى
Yaḥyā
John (the Baptist)
He lives, the Qur'an's most audacious act of renaming
عِيسَى
ʿĪsā
Jesus
The great phonological enigma: how did Yēshūaʿ become ʿĪsā?
مُحَمَّد
Muḥammad
Muhammad
The praised one, the name IS the mission