Biblical names for girls

Classic names for girls

These names have remained in continuous use across centuries and traditions. They are the bedrock of the biblical canon for girls — names you can give a child without explanation, names that quietly carry their own weight.

• SarahGenesis 17:15

  "Princess; noblewoman"

  Sarah is the first matriarch of Israel, and her story is one of waiting — decades of waiting for a promise that seemed increasingly absurd. God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars, but Sarah was barren. She waited ten years, then took matters into her own hands and gave Abraham her servant Hagar. When Hagar conceived, Sarah treated her harshly — a decision with consequences that reverberate to this day. When three visitors came to Abraham's tent at Mamre and said Sarah would have a son within a year, Sarah — now eighty-nine years old — laughed. God heard the laugh. 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' When Isaac was born, Sarah said, 'God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.' She demanded the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael — a cruel act that Abraham agreed to only after God told him to listen to Sarah. She died at 127, the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. Peter, in his first epistle, holds Sarah up as a model of holy beauty — not external adornment but 'the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.' This sits uneasily with the Sarah of Genesis, who was anything but quiet. Perhaps Peter's point is that her inner life — her capacity to wait, to laugh, to receive the impossible — was the beauty that lasted.

• RebeccaGenesis 24:15

  "To bind; to tie firmly; captivating; ensnaring"

  Rebecca's entrance into scripture is one of the Bible's most beautiful narratives. Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, and the servant prayed for a sign: the right woman would offer water not just to him but to his camels. Rebecca appeared at the well, offered water to the servant, then said, 'I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.' Ten thirsty camels drink enormous amounts. This was not a small gesture — it was extraordinary generosity. When asked if she would go with the servant to marry a man she had never met in a land she had never seen, her answer was immediate: 'I will go.' She was decisive, generous, and brave. But Rebecca's later story is more complex. When she bore twins — Esau and Jacob — God told her the older would serve the younger. She favoured Jacob. When Isaac, old and blind, prepared to bless Esau, Rebecca orchestrated a deception: she dressed Jacob in Esau's clothes and goatskins to mimic his brother's hairy skin. The ruse worked. Jacob received the blessing. Esau was devastated. Rebecca never saw Jacob again — she sent him to her brother Laban and died before he returned. She was a woman of initiative and boldness who shaped Israel's destiny through both generosity and manipulation. The biblical text does not resolve the tension. She is buried beside Isaac in the cave of Machpelah.

• RuthRuth 1:4

  "Companion; friend; vision of beauty"

  Ruth was a Moabite — a foreigner from a nation historically hostile to Israel. She married Naomi's son Mahlon, and when he died, Ruth had every reason to return to her own people. Naomi urged her to go. Ruth's response is one of the most beautiful declarations of loyalty in all literature: 'Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.' She chose poverty in a foreign land with a grieving mother-in-law over comfort at home. In Bethlehem, she gleaned in the fields — the ancient safety net for the destitute — and came to the attention of Boaz. The threshing-floor scene (Ruth 3) is one of the Bible's most delicately written passages: Ruth went to Boaz at night, lay at his feet, and said, 'Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.' Boaz honoured her, navigated the legal process, and married her. Their son Obed became the grandfather of King David. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus includes Ruth — a Moabite outsider — in the direct line of the Messiah. The book of Ruth is only four chapters long. It contains no miracles, no divine speech, no prophetic oracle. It is about ordinary faithfulness — choosing loyalty over convenience, showing kindness when nothing compels it — and it argues that such faithfulness is the raw material from which God builds kingdoms.

• EstherEsther 2:7

  "Star; hidden; secret"

  Esther — born Hadassah — was a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai in the Persian capital of Susa. When Queen Vashti was deposed for refusing to display herself at the king's feast, Esther was chosen from among the empire's young women to become the new queen. Mordecai told her to keep her Jewish identity secret. The crisis came when Haman, the king's chief minister, secured a decree to exterminate all Jews in the empire — a genocide scheduled for a single day. Mordecai sent word to Esther: 'Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' Those words — 'for such a time as this' — have echoed through centuries of people facing impossible decisions. Esther's response was equally famous: 'I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.' She fasted for three days, then approached the king uninvited (a potentially capital offence), and through a series of brilliantly orchestrated banquets, exposed Haman's plot. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. The Jews were saved. The festival of Purim celebrates this deliverance to this day. The book of Esther is unique in the Bible — God is never mentioned by name — yet the whole narrative turns on providence, timing, and courage. Her story is about what it means to risk everything for your people while navigating power structures that could crush you.

• Hannah1 Samuel 1:2

  "Grace; favour; gracious"

  Hannah's story opens in grief. She was one of two wives of Elkanah — loved by her husband but unable to bear children, while his other wife Peninnah had many. Peninnah taunted her relentlessly. Year after year Hannah went to the tabernacle at Shiloh, and year after year she wept and could not eat. One year she prayed with such desperate intensity — lips moving but no sound coming out — that the priest Eli thought she was drunk. She told him she was pouring out her soul before God. Eli blessed her. She went home, conceived, and bore a son she named Samuel — 'because I asked the Lord for him.' Her prayer of dedication (1 Samuel 2:1-10) is one of the great poems in the Bible. It begins 'My heart rejoices in the Lord' and moves through themes of reversal — the barren woman bears seven, the rich go hungry, the poor are lifted from the ash heap — that Mary's Magnificat would later echo almost word for word. When Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought him to the tabernacle and gave him to God. Every year she made him a little robe and brought it when she came for the annual sacrifice. She had asked for one child. God gave her five more. Her story defines what prayer looks like when it costs everything — and what faithfulness looks like when the answer arrives.

• MaryLuke 1:27

  "Beloved; wished-for child; bitter sea; rebellion"

  Mary was a young woman in Nazareth — probably a teenager — when the angel Gabriel appeared and told her she would bear God's son. Her response has defined Christian devotion for two thousand years: 'I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.' Her song of praise — the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) — is one of the most revolutionary poems ever composed: 'He has scattered those who are proud. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.' It is a song of radical reversal, sung by an unmarried pregnant girl in an occupied country. Mary bore Jesus in Bethlehem, fled with Joseph to Egypt, raised him in Nazareth, and watched him grow. She was present at his first miracle (the wedding at Cana, where she simply told the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you'). She stood at the cross — John's Gospel places her there, watching her son die, and Jesus entrusted her to John's care. She was with the disciples in the upper room after the ascension. Luke says she 'treasured all these things in her heart' — a phrase that suggests she held knowledge too large and too painful for words. She is the most venerated woman in Christianity, honoured across Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and many Protestant traditions. Her name, in its countless forms — Maria, Marie, Miriam, Maryam, Meri, Mairi — has been given to more women than any other name in history.

• RachelGenesis 29:6

  "Ewe; one with purity; gentle"

  Rachel is the great love story of the Old Testament — and one of its great tragedies. Jacob saw her at a well and wept. He worked seven years for her father Laban to earn her hand, and the text says the years 'seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.' On the wedding night, Laban substituted Leah (the older sister) under the veil. Jacob worked seven more years. Rachel was loved but could not conceive, while Leah bore son after son. Rachel's anguish was raw: 'Give me children, or I'll die!' She eventually bore Joseph — and the narrative emphasis makes clear that this child, born of love and longing, was Jacob's deepest joy. When Jacob finally left Laban, Rachel stole her father's household gods — a puzzling act that may reflect either residual paganism or a claim to family inheritance. She died giving birth to her second son on the road near Bethlehem. Her last act was to name him Ben-Oni — 'son of my sorrow' — though Jacob changed it to Benjamin. She was buried on the road, not in the family tomb at Machpelah. Centuries later, Jeremiah pictured Rachel weeping for her children as the exiles were marched past her tomb, and Matthew quoted the same verse at Herod's massacre of the innocents. Rachel's tomb, near Bethlehem, remains a site of pilgrimage. She is the mother whose love was deep enough to echo across millennia.

• NaomiRuth 1:2

  "Pleasant; beautiful; my delight; agreeable"

  Naomi's story is a journey from fullness to emptiness and back. She left Bethlehem (whose name means 'house of bread') during a famine — a bitter irony — and went to Moab with her husband Elimelech and two sons. In Moab, her husband died. Her sons married Moabite women, then both sons died. Naomi was left with nothing: no husband, no sons, no grandchildren, no income, no future in a world where women depended entirely on male relatives. She told her daughters-in-law to go home. Orpah went. Ruth refused: 'Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.' They returned to Bethlehem together. Naomi was strategic — she sent Ruth to glean in Boaz's fields, knowing Boaz was a kinsman-redeemer. She coached Ruth through the threshing-floor encounter. Her plan worked. Ruth married Boaz. When their son Obed was born, the women of Bethlehem told Naomi, 'He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.' The book ends with Naomi holding her grandson — pleasant at last. Through Obed came Jesse, then David, then ultimately Jesus. Naomi's story insists that bitterness is not the end of the story.

Rising names for girls

Names that have stepped out of the shadows in the last decade — partly through scripture, partly through literature, partly through the steady cultural pull of names that mean something.

• EdenGenesis 2:8

  "Delight; paradise; pleasure"

  Eden was the garden God planted as humanity's first home — a place of abundance, beauty, and unbroken relationship with God. Four rivers flowed from it. Every tree was pleasing to the eye and good for food. God walked there in the cool of the day. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were exiled from Eden, and cherubim with flaming swords guarded the way back. The rest of the Bible can be read as the long journey home. The prophets promise Eden's restoration: Ezekiel envisions a river flowing from the temple that makes everything it touches alive, and the trees on its banks bear fruit every month. Revelation ends with the tree of life restored and the river of life flowing through the new Jerusalem. Eden is the beginning and the end — the first garden and the last city. As a name it carries the ache of paradise lost and the hope of paradise restored. It speaks of delight, not as superficial pleasure, but as the deep satisfaction of being exactly where you were meant to be.

• SelahPsalm 3:2

  "Pause; rest; praise; reflect"

  Selah is not the name of a biblical person but a term woven through the Psalms — seventy-one times across thirty-nine psalms, and three times in the prophet Habakkuk's prayer. Scholars have debated its meaning for centuries. The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) translated it as 'diapsalma' — an interlude. Some think it was a direction to the musicians: pause, lift up, play louder. Others read it as an instruction to the congregation: stop here and reflect on what has just been said. The Talmud suggests it means 'forever.' What's beautiful is that no one is entirely sure — and that ambiguity is the point. Selah appears after some of the Psalms' most intense moments: after declarations of trust in battle, after confessions of sin, after breathtaking statements about God's character. It appears in Psalm 46 after 'The Lord Almighty is with us' and in Psalm 3 after 'You, Lord, are a shield around me.' The word says: stop. Let that land. As a given name, Selah has risen sharply in popularity, particularly in the United States. It carries a contemplative weight — a name that asks the bearer and everyone who says it to pause.

• AdaGenesis 4:19

  "Adornment; beauty; noble"

  Ada (also spelled Adah) is one of the first women named in the Bible. She was one of the two wives of Lamech, a descendant of Cain. Her son Jabal was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and have livestock — the first nomadic pastoralists — and her other son Jubal was the ancestor of all who play the harp and flute — the first musicians. Through her children, Ada is symbolically connected to two fundamental aspects of human culture: pastoral life and music. A second Adah appears later in Genesis as one of Esau's wives, a Hittite woman. The name has experienced a significant revival in modern times, prized for its simplicity, antiquity, and elegance.

• LydiaActs 16:14

  "From Lydia; beautiful one; noble one"

  Lydia is the first named convert to Christianity in Europe, and her story marks a pivotal geographical shift in the faith's expansion. Paul arrived in Philippi — a Roman colony in Macedonia — after a vision of a man calling 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' On the Sabbath, Paul went to a riverside where women gathered for prayer. Among them was Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. Purple dye was one of the ancient world's most valuable commodities; Lydia was a businesswoman of significant means. Luke says 'the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.' She was baptised along with her entire household — the first recorded baptism on European soil. Then she made an extraordinary offer: 'If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.' Luke adds, 'And she persuaded us.' Her home became the base for the church in Philippi — the church to which Paul later wrote his warmest letter. Lydia is a woman of commerce, conviction, and hospitality. She did not wait to be invited into the faith; once her heart was opened, she opened her home.

• Abigail1 Samuel 25:3

  "Father's joy; source of joy"

  Abigail is introduced in one of the Old Testament's most vivid narratives. She was married to Nabal, a wealthy but harsh and foolish man whose name literally means 'fool.' When David and his men — who had been protecting Nabal's shepherds in the wilderness — asked for provisions and were rudely refused, David swore to kill every male in Nabal's household. Abigail acted with extraordinary speed and wisdom. Without telling her husband, she loaded donkeys with bread, wine, grain, raisins, and meat, rode out to meet David, and delivered one of the most eloquent speeches in the Old Testament. She took responsibility for her husband's insult, appealed to David's future as king, and warned him that bloodshed would be a burden on his conscience. David was stopped in his tracks. He said to her: 'Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed.' Ten days later Nabal died, and David married Abigail. The text describes her as both intelligent and beautiful — and it is her intelligence that the narrative celebrates most.

• JuniaRomans 16:7

  "Youthful"

  Described by Paul as outstanding among the apostles — one of the earliest women leaders in the church. Her apostolic status has been debated and celebrated.

Rare biblical names for girls

The deep cuts. Names most parenting sites won't list — because their bearers appear briefly, and their stories take a moment to find. Each one is a doorway into a passage worth opening.

• AchsahJoshua 15:16

  "Anklet; adorned"

  Achsah's story is brief but significant. Her father Caleb — the spy who trusted God when ten others did not — offered her in marriage to whoever captured the city of Kiriath-Sepher. Othniel, Caleb's nephew, took the city and won her hand. But Achsah was not passive in this arrangement. She urged Othniel to ask her father for a field, and then went further herself. She dismounted from her donkey before Caleb and said: 'Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.' Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs. In an era when women had few property rights, Achsah boldly claimed her portion — and got more than she asked for. She appears in both Joshua and Judges, and her story is sometimes read as a model of women asserting their inheritance in God's economy.

• KeziahJob 42:14

  "Cassia; cinnamon-like spice"

  Job's second daughter born after his restoration. Named for a fragrant spice, she was among the most beautiful women in the land.

• TirzahNumbers 26:33

  "Delightful; pleasant; favourable"

  One of the five daughters of Zelophehad who successfully petitioned Moses for their inheritance rights — a landmark moment for women's status in ancient law.

• JemimaJob 42:14

  "Dove; handsome"

  The first of Job's three daughters born after his restoration. She is described as one of the most beautiful women in the land.

Frequently asked

What is the most popular biblical name for girls?

Mary, Sarah, Hannah and Rebecca remain the most enduring biblical names for girls in the UK — each with thousands of years of continuous use behind them.

What biblical girl name means strength?

Several biblical names for girls carry connotations of strength, including Atarah ('crown'), Deborah ('bee, leader'), and Naomi ('pleasantness, but spiritually steadfast'). Use the theme filter on our names tool to browse them.

What are some rare biblical names for girls?

Names like Achsah, Keziah, Shiphrah, Atarah, Tirzah and Jemima appear only briefly in scripture but carry striking meanings and stories.

What is the difference between Old and New Testament names?

Old Testament names are largely Hebrew in origin and tend to describe character, divine action or place. New Testament names are often Greek or Aramaic, reflecting the multilingual world of the early church.

Are all Hebrew names biblical?

No — Hebrew is a living language and many modern Hebrew names never appear in scripture. The names we list are all attested in the biblical text.