# Names of God
The names of God are the words and titles by which the deity worshipped in a religious tradition is addressed, invoked, or described, ranging from a single proper name in the [Hebrew Bible](https://www.edgepedia.org/hebrew-bible) to systematic lists of descriptive names in Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism. These names carry theological weight: in the Hebrew Bible, God's name is treated as an instrument of divine disclosure rather than a mere label[1](https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Names-God).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Most frequent Hebrew name | The Tetragrammaton YHWH occurs 6,823 times in the Old Testament, the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-) |
| Substitution practice | In the Second Temple era, spoken recitation replaced YHWH with adonay ("Lord"); later Christian Greek manuscripts substituted κύριος[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129) |
| Rabbinic name count | Seven names require a scribe's special care: El, Elohim, Adonai, Yhwh, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, Shaddai, and Ẓeba'ot[4](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6727-god-names-of) |
| "Jehovah" | A mispronunciation combining the consonants of Yhwh with the vowels of Adonay, described as grammatically impossible[5](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8568) |
| Islamic names | A hadith says Allah has ninety-nine names; the list in that form appears only in al-Tirmidhi's Sunan[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S2468553420000032) |
| Sikhism | Waheguru ("Wonderful Teacher") is the main name for God; Akal Purakh is the formal term[7](https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Names_of_God) |
## The Tetragrammaton
The four-lettered name YHWH, also called the [Tetragrammaton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tetragrammaton) (Greek for "four letters"), is the personal proper name of the God of Israel, similar to "Susan" or "Teddy" in ordinary English usage[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129). It occurs most frequently of all [Old Testament](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-testament) names for God, at 6,823 times[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-). Its precise meaning is debated: it technically has no meaning but resembles the Hebrew verb "to be" and is thus glossed as "I AM the One who is and Will Be"[8](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-blackfriars/article/abs/naming-god-or-why-names-are-not-attributes/2F3C69DCB8A259DE48A84A783A618C9E).
## Substitution and the tradition of not pronouncing the name
Because of reverence for the name, Jewish tradition came to avoid pronouncing YHWH. In the [Second Temple](https://www.edgepedia.org/second-temple) era, recitations of the Hebrew Bible replaced YHWH with the Hebrew word for "Lord," adonay, and manuscripts marked the name with special orthography[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129). The Masorites later inserted the vowels of Adonai into the consonants of Yhwh to signal that Adonai should be read; when Adonai itself precedes, the vowels of [Elohim](https://www.edgepedia.org/elohim) are used instead[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-).
Later Christian copies of the Greek Old Testament brought the oral tradition into the text itself by substituting Greek κύριος ("Lord") for YHWH[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129). The Talmud (Pesahim 50a) records a rabbinic interpretation of Exodus 3:15 according to which God says "This [YHWH] is my name to conceal"[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129). In the Temple, the written Name was pronounced only by priests when blessing the people; outside it, the title "Adonai" was used[9](https://sefaria.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6727-god-names-of).
The English form "Jehovah" arose through combining the consonants of Yhwh with the vowels of Adonay, a pronunciation the Jewish Encyclopedia calls "a philological impossibility"[5](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8568).
## Other Hebrew names
Besides the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew Bible uses a range of names and epithets. Elohim is plural in form though commonly construed with a singular verb or adjective, most probably a plural of majesty expressing high dignity or greatness; its root-meaning is unknown[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-). The singular Eloah occurs comparatively rarely, appearing only in poetry and late prose[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-). The Hebrew word El can be either the common noun "god" or the name of El/Ilu, a deity known from non-Israelite West Semitic sources such as the mythological texts from Ugarit, where he appears as head of the pantheon[10](https://academic.oup.com/reference/62341/reference-article-abstract/554101891).
Several compound names join YHWH with a second word, including YHWH ṣebaoth ("the Lord of hosts") and YHWH elohim ("the Lord God")[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129). Rabbinic tradition counted seven names requiring special care from the scribe: El, Elohim, Adonai, Yhwh, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, Shaddai, and Ẓeba'ot[4](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6727-god-names-of). The Talmud mentions a twelve-lettered Name and a forty-two-lettered Name but does not reveal them; Rashi states they have been lost[11](https://www.jewishbible.org/articles/the-names-of-god/).
Four biblical texts give special attention to God's disclosure of the divine name to humankind: Genesis 4:25–26, shortly after creation; and Exodus 3, Exodus 6, and Ezekiel 20, at the time of God's emancipation of the [Israelites](https://www.edgepedia.org/israelites) from Egypt[3](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129).
## Islam
In Islam, a hadith states that Allah has ninety-nine names. The transmission history of this hadith is complex: of the relevant traditions, only one, related by Abū Hurayra, actually lists the ninety-nine names, and the list is found in that form only in al-Tirmidhi's Sunan[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S2468553420000032). No single agreed list exists; scholars differ over some entries, and Ibn Taymiyah noted the hadith does not mean Allah has no names apart from the ninety-nine[12](https://mydeenpath.org/en/guides/99-names-of-allah/). Al-Ghazali devoted major attention to the application of the meanings of the names of [God in Islam](https://www.edgepedia.org/god-in-islam)[13](https://ghazali.org/books/Ghazali-99-Name-of-God.pdf).
## Documentary hypothesis and scholarly debate
In critical biblical scholarship, the alternating use of YHWH and Elohim in Genesis became one basis of the documentary hypothesis: source "J" frequently uses the Tetragrammaton YHWH while source "E" uses Elohim[14](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/18/05/66/09/2018056609/2018056609.pdf). Other scholars, such as Herbert Brichto, argue against this atomistic reading, contending instead that the alternation serves as a device for a single author selecting the name appropriate to each story[15](https://academic.oup.com/book/50202).
## Other traditions
Sikhism's gurus adopted divine names from various faith systems, holding that sectarian linguistic differences were unimportant compared with the message they spread[7](https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Names_of_God). In Hindu tradition, sahasranama ("thousand names") literature catalogs the names of deities such as Vishnu, whose Vishnusahasranama, spoken by Bhishma in the [Mahabharata](https://www.edgepedia.org/mahabharata), is widely accepted for daily worship[16](https://sanskritdocuments.org/~sanskrit/doc_trial/fortransfer/Rahul/The_sahasranama_literature_A_study.pdf).
## References
1. [God, Names of, Encyclopedia of The Bible, Bible Gateway](https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Names-God)
2. [NAMES OF GOD, JewishEncyclopedia.com](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-)
3. [Names of God in the Hebrew Bible, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter-abstract/551353129)
4. [NAMES OF GOD, JewishEncyclopedia.com](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6727-god-names-of)
5. [JEHOVAH, JewishEncyclopedia.com](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8568)
6. [Al-Ghazālī's Virtue Ethical Theory of the Divine Names, ScienceDirect](https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S2468553420000032)
7. [Names of God, SikhiWiki](https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Names_of_God)
8. [Naming God: Or Why Names are not Attributes, New Blackfriars, Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-blackfriars/article/abs/naming-god-or-why-names-are-not-attributes/2F3C69DCB8A259DE48A84A783A618C9E)
9. [NAMES OF GOD, JewishEncyclopedia.com (Sefaria mirror)](https://sefaria.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6727-god-names-of)
10. [Names of God in the Hebrew Bible, Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies](https://academic.oup.com/reference/62341/reference-article-abstract/554101891)
11. [The Names of God, Jewish Bible Quarterly](https://www.jewishbible.org/articles/the-names-of-god/)
12. [The 99 Names of Allah, MyDeenPath](https://mydeenpath.org/en/guides/99-names-of-allah/)
13. [Ninety-Nine Names of God in Islam, ghazali.org](https://ghazali.org/books/Ghazali-99-Name-of-God.pdf)
14. [The Names of God and the Dating of the Biblical Corpus](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/18/05/66/09/2018056609/2018056609.pdf)
15. [The Names of God: Poetic Readings in Biblical Beginnings, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/50202)
16. [The sahasranama literature: A study, sanskritdocuments.org](https://sanskritdocuments.org/~sanskrit/doc_trial/fortransfer/Rahul/The_sahasranama_literature_A_study.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Philosophy › Philosophy of religion › Divine attributes and metaphysics of religion*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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