Daniel

Meaning

The name comes from Hebrew Daniyyel and is traditionally understood as combining the idea of “judge” with God. In the excerpts, Yonge glosses it as “the judging God,” and notes that Daniel’s name is an amplification of Dan, “a judge.” More broadly, the name is commonly taken to mean “God is my judge.”

Origin

Fun fact

The excerpts note that Daniel’s Babylonian court name, Belteshazzar, was a heathenized substitute, and that Daniel himself never uses that title for himself.