Naturally, these parents have already selected a name for the to-be-born child. The drive to organize everything for a child in advance extends not only to infancy but to the prenatal period. In Genesis 43:34 we see Yoseph giving Binyamin a portion "five" times as much as his brothers. They realize that although their influence over their children might be limited, the names they give them usually stick. In Hebrew Baby Names the meaning of the name Benjamin is: Son of my right hand. Child-raising in today's Jewish America is serious business. The tribe of Benjamin was decimated after the atrocities committed in Gibeah (Judges 19-21) but still, a generation later Israel's first king was from the surviving remnant of Benjamin (1 Samuel 9:1). Famous bearers: 19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. He encounters his brother Esau and parts from him without coming to harm. In Hebrew Baby Names the meaning of the name Benjamin is: Son of my right hand. Biblical Jacob's twelfth son. Genesis 42:36 HEB: אֵינֶ֔נּוּ וְאֶת־ בִּנְיָמִ֣ן תִּקָּ֔חוּ עָלַ֖י NAS: and you would take Benjamin; all KJV: [is] not, and ye will take Benjamin [away]: all these things are against me. This is again, the word בן (ben, Strong's #1121) meaning son but combined with the word ימין (yamin, Strong's #3225) meaning "right hand." In contrast to the more recent practice of naming children after ancestors, the Biblical method was to give the child a name reflecting either the mother's state of mind (luckily, we don't do that anymore, or most children would be named Exhausted) or a hope for what the child would become. 1; Phil. All responsible parents must ensure that their children are thoroughly prepped for the standardized tests that open the doors to good schools and, ultimately, good jobs. In 1 Samuel 9:4 occurs the phrase ארץ־ימיני, "land of the Yemenite". The practice of naming children after regions of the Land of Israel continues: Israelis today have names such as Gilad or Carmela. The prime virtue is preparation. These Boy-Girl Twin Names Are the Perfect Match — & Twice the Cuteness, Influenza Musk Isn’t Real But These Bizarre Celebrity Baby Names Are, These Baby Names Are Predicted to Be 2020’s Most Popular, Baby Names for Twin Boys That Sound Like They Belong Together, Short Baby Boy Names for Parents Who Like to Keep It Simple. The name Benjamin consists of two elements, the first one being the common Hebrew noun בן (ben), meaning son: The noun בן (ben) means son, or more general: a member of one particular social or economic node — called a "house", which is built upon the instructions of one אב ('ab), or "father" — within in a larger economy (hence: the "sons of the prophet" are the members of the prophet-class; the prophets). The name Ben-Oni is the word בן (ben, Strong's #1121) meaning son and the word אוני which is the word און (ohn or avon, Strong's #205) meaning vanity, or more literally, effort that is put out with no results, with the suffix י (i) meaning "of me" or "my." Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1967 movie 'The Graduate.' xi. The name Benjamin has been popular in America from colonial times to the present, among Jews and Christians both. The drive to organize everything for a child in advance extends not only to infancy but to the prenatal period. However, due to its popularity, it is also known as “Ben Yamin” in Arabic where we find its roots too with the same meaning. This also indicates that one normally faces east, which corresponds to the past. Sometimes our noun is contracted into a single letter ב, whose name beth comes from בית (bayit) and means "house" as well. Ben-Oni, as Rachel called her son as her soul was departing, means ‘the son of my … Child-raising in today's Jewish America is serious business. This is Rachel's child, her second boy. When a father blessed the eldest son, he would place his right hand upon his head when giving him his blessing (see Genesis 48:18). Adjective ימני (yemani) meaning right hand or right. Philo of Alexandria, the Samaritan Pentateuch The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and Midrash Leḳaḥ-Ṭob understand יָמִין to mean "days" (a meaning attested in Daniel 12:13) understanding the name to mean "son of days (i.e. Naming a child is widely acknowledged to be the prerogative of parents. Noun ימין (yamin) means right, i.e. Etymology []. Rashi supports this explanation with a reference to Psalm 89: Perhaps Rashi is implying that "yamin" is more than a geographical designation. The family was traveling toward the Negev when the child was born, and this, the first of Jacob's children to be born in the Promised Land, was named in recognition of part of that land. Put this Hebrew name on your site or blog! Posted On December 16, 2000 / 5761 | Main Commentary. In Hebrew, the names mean completely different things but sound somewhat alike. If the name feels too formal for you, Ben is Benjamin’s more fun, unbuttoned little cousin. right hand, side or the right of other parts of the body. ii. Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom. It is often shortened to Ben, and sometimes to Benny, or Benjy. It is that name (Benjamin) that remains. This is again, the word בן (ben, Strong's #1121) meaning son but combined with the word ימין (yamin, Strong's #3225) meaning "right hand." Benjamin is the anglicized form of the biblical Hebrew Benyamin. Be our patron for as little as one dollar a month: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Benjamin.html, The Passion of the Christ and the Theory of Everything, The Fate of Our World: The Bible, AI and Cryptocurrency, A descendant of the original Benjamin, namely a son of. Borrowed from Ancient Greek Βενιαμίν (Beniamín). The name Benjamin has been popular in America from colonial times to the present, among Jews and Christians both. The word for mother, אם ('em), is highly similar to that of tribe or people, אמה ('umma). Meaning & History. It was a name not of reflection but of preparation, not of dwelling on past sorrow but of hoping for future achievement. She dies in childbirth, but not before naming him Ben-Oni -- the son of my distress. (ASV, Genesis 35:18). From Late Latin Benjamin, from Ancient Greek Βενιαμίν (Beniamín), from Biblical Hebrew בִּנְיָמִין‎ (binyamīn, literally “ son of the right/south or son of days ”).Authorities differ on the meaning of the original Hebrew. Benjamin is a popular given name for males, derived from Hebrew בִּנְיָמִין ‎, Binyāmīn, translating as "Son of my right [hand]", though in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the … Adjective ימיני (yemini) meaning on the right. In the Book of Genesis, it is primarily the mother who names the child. The second part of the name Benjamin comes from the noun ימין (yamin), meaning right hand or right side, from the root ימן: The root ימן (ymn) is of unclear pedigree and meaning but it has to do with both the right hand side and the southern direction, which are both decidedly positive (whereas left and north have negative connotations). In fact, the most common sense of the word as used in the Bible is the right hand, specifically as a symbol of strength. Although it cannot be said that generations of parents all knew the origins and interpretations of the name, perhaps a subtle recognition was at work, a recognition that life is composed of large measures of both sorrow and hope, and a name can reflect both. Benjamin is a popular given name for males, derived from Hebrew בנימין translating as "son of my right [hand]", though in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the name appears as ࠁࠍࠉࠌࠉࠌ, "Binyaamem" 'Son of my days'. Furthermore, it gives necessary weight to her role as a tragic figure who was the first love of her husband yet was never able to live a settled and fruitful life with him. Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious & Social Studies, Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Milstein Center for Interreligous Dialogue, Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI), Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute (JECELI), Ivriyon: Hebrew Immersion Institute for Day School Educators, The Legacy Heritage Instructional Leadership Institute, Legacy Heritage Instructional Leadership Institute. Jacob does not accept that name and calls him Bin-Yamin, the son of my right hand. When a father blessed the eldest son, he would place his right hand upon his head when giving him his blessing (see Genesis 48:18). Originally his mother Rachel named him Benoni meaning "son of My sorrow" before dying from childbirth. In naming her son as she did, Rachel broke with the pattern set by Jacob's other wives, and which she followed in the case of her son, Joseph, of naming children as an expression of hope rather than fear. Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Biblical character, mythological son of Jacob, the youngest son of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob, Wikipedia disambiguation page for Benjamin, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Benjamin&oldid=59761391, English terms derived from Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano terms derived from Biblical Hebrew, Faroese terms derived from Biblical Hebrew, Latin terms with Ecclesiastical IPA pronunciation, Terms with manual transliterations different from the automated ones, Terms with manual transliterations different from the automated ones/ru, Terms with manual transliterations different from the automated ones/yi, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. What does Benjamin mean and stand for? From English Benjamin, from Late Latin Benjamin, from Ancient Greek Βενιαμίν (Beniamín), from Biblical Hebrew בִּנְיָמִין‎ (binyamīn, literally “son of the right [hand]”). Ya'akov gave a different name to his son - בנימין (binyamin, Strong's #1144). Benjamin m (genitive Benjamins, plural Benjamine). iii. Of the three U.S. presidents who bore names from the Hebrew Bible, one of them (Harrison) was a Benjamin. An often neglected curiosity is the disproportionally important role of the tribe of Benjamin in the development of Israel, or even the very pattern of redemption displayed by the Bible: The city of Jerusalem was originally assigned to Benjamin (Joshua 18:28, Judges 1:21). The much more common ethnonym associated with the tribe of Benjamin is בן־ימיני or בן־הימיני, "son of the Yemenite" (Judges 3:15, 19:16, 1 Samuel 9:21, 2 Samuel 16:11, 1 Kings 2:8, Psalm 7:1), בני ימיני, "sons of the Yemenite" (1 Samuel 22:7), or איש ימיני, "a Yemenite man" (1 Samuel 9:1, 2 Samuel 20:1, Esther 2:5). All responsible parents must ensure that their children are thoroughly prepped for the standardized tests that open the doors to good schools and, ultimately, good jobs. Benjamin is also a patronymic surname. Jacob returns to the Land of Canaan with his wives, concubines, eleven sons and a daughter. The name בן אוני then means "son of my vanity" and appears to be Rahheyl's final words which imply that her son, who is brought forth through much effort, would bring her life to an end. Benjamin in the Old Testament was the twelfth and youngest son of Jacob and the founder of one of the southern tribes of the Hebrews. Rashi in his commentary on Genesis also gives this as a possible meaning but favors an understanding of יָמִין to mean "right" in the sense of "the south", noting that Benjamin was the only son of Jacob born in the south.