Barak (given name)

The given name Barak, also spelled Baraq, from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning "lightning". It appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name of Barak (ברק Bārāq), an Israelite general. It is also an Arabic name from the root B-R-K with the meaning of "blessed" though it is mostly in its feminine form Baraka(h).

B-R-Q

The Semitic root B-R-Q has the meaning "to shine"; "lightning".[1]:p.122 The biblical name ברק Bārāq is given after Barak, a military commander who appears in the Book of Judges.

The Arabic cognate is بَرْق barq (not to be confused with بَارَك bārak, which is cognate with Hebrew בָּרוּךְ‬ bārûch). The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is derived from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic Mi'raj tradition.

Although the given name is mostly Jewish and found predominantly in Israel, it has occasionally been used by Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the early modern period, when given names from the Hebrew Bible were in fashion, as in the name of Barak Longmate, an 18th-century English genealogist.

People with the name

From Hebrew

Notable people with the name include:

The 44th President of the United States Barack Obama’s name, though similar, is from a different root

From Arabic

Also see Baraka

  • Barak Sultan (1731-1750), member of the Kazakh Khanate dynasty

See also

References

  1. ↑ Murtonen, Aimo (1986). Hospers, J.H., ed. Hebrew in its West Semitic setting: a comparative survey of non-Masoretic Hebrew dialects and traditions. Leiden: E.J. Brill. ISBN 9789004088993.
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