The boy's name Caleb \c(a)-l

eb\ is pronounced KAY-leb. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "faith, devotion, whole
hearted". Biblical: Caleb, a companion of Moses and Joshua, was noted for his astute powers of
observation and fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds; his devotion to God is
symbolized by the "dog" in some traditions. The name was popular among the Puritans, and was
introduced by them to America. Author Caleb Carr.

Caleb has 6 variant forms: Cal, Cale, Cayleb, Kaleb, Kayleb and Kaylob.

Baby names that sound like Caleb are Colby, Collby, Colbey, Colbee and Ghalib.

Subject: Caleb - meaning

Author: exracer327 (Authenticated as
exracer327)
Date: February 24, 2005 at 12:03:33 PM
Many name books / websites list the meaning of CALEB as "Dog". However, a simple look in a
Hebrew / English dctionary one will see that "dog" in Hebrew is CELEB, not CALEB. **Note**
the first vowel is different.

CALEB is actually a compound word in Hebrew - something that is quite common in ancient
Hebrew. Col (Cuf + Lamed) = all or whole. Lev (Lamed + Vet) = heart. Therefore, CALEB (or
COLEV as pronounced in Hebrew) actually means "whole hearted".

Faithful could be another translation. However, if you read in the Hebrew Bible the exploits of
CALEB (as in one of the twelve spies who went into Caanan Numbers 13:6 & 13:30), one will
see that he wasn't simply faithful, but that he served the God of ISRAEL with his whole heart.
IE: He was the first to speak up and say, "let's go and conquer this land," (paraphrased). It wasn't
JOSHUA (the leader of the 12 spies), but CALEB who was encouraging Israel to follow God
inspite of the opposition from the other 10 spies.

Therefore, the ancient meaning of CALEB is: "whole hearted".

In the Old Testament, Caleb and Joshua were among the Israelites who left Egypt for Canaan
with Moses. They were the only two who lived to see the promised land. Caleb is sometimes
translated as "faithful" or "loyal," probably because a dog displays these attributes towards its
master. The correct translation, however, is "dog"; several figures throughout the Old Testament
have names that correspond to an animal.

Subject: Re: Caleb - meaning

Author: Andy ;—) (guest,
84.128.204.129)
Date: February 25, 2005 at 5:49:09 AM
Reply to: Caleb - meaning by exracer327
Caleb (Kalev) isn't easy. You are right, the dog part appears almost everywhere.
Now Lala is right, when she says that vowels don't mean a lot in Hebrew, so KALEV could well
be related to KELEV, because the consonants Kaf-Lamed-Bet are the same. The pronunciation is
nothing much to go by: You pronounce the name "Colev", which is the Ashkenaz pronunciation.
The Sephardic pronunciation is KALEV, and in modern Hebrew the name is pronounced this
way. So the (possible) pronunciation "COLEV" is not really an argument for your thesis.
As far as I can see (please correct me if I'm mistaken) the dog part doesn't come in directly
through the Hebrew word kelev, but through an Arabic parallel. Martin Noth has this in his book
"Die israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Namengebung" (despite
its age of more than 70 years still the standard work on the subject): "'furious like a dog', after the
Arabic karibun" (page 230, fn 5). Of course the two words are related.
You are right: The explanation you are giving (and you are not the only one) perfectly matches
the character of the biblical KALEV - and this is exactly what makes me suspicious.
I believe, this is but folk etymology, nicely made up and good for a Sunday sermon. But I don't
think it has anything to do with the original meaning of the name. If I had the means, I would try
and look in the Jewish tradition and probably find something about KALEV loving God "with all
his heart" (Dtn 6,5: „kol-levav“! ).
In the bible names of animals usually have a positive connotation when used as a personal name:
Debora should be as industrious as a bee, Arie as strong as a lion, Zibya as elegant as a Gazelle
etc. Others probably were nicknames in the first place: Tola (Gen 46,13) means "worm", Chulda
(Huldah) (2. Kings 22,14) is a "moule" (choled; chulda in modern Hebrew means „rat“), and
Parosh (Esr 2,3) means "flea". So a name meaning "furious as a dog" would fit in with this.
But I don’t seeany names in the bible starting with "Kol-" …
There is a philological rule: If there are two possibilities, the one, that has the less beautiful (or
fitting, or expectable) meaning, is more like to be original. This means: It is easier to explain,
how the name KALEV was reinterpreted as "whole hearted", than to explain, why the meaning
"doglike" would be added later. Philology usually achieves its best results, when people are not
preoccupied with desirable meanings.

The Japanese name Yuki is much more popular as a female name. It may be written
with the character for "happiness; blessing; fortune". Other possible combinations of
characters include "possess; have; occur" (yu) and "hope; beg; request" (ki).Yuki is
sometimes used to transcribe the name Yuuki (with a long vowel 'u') which also
frequently occurs and was ranked 37th most popular boys' names of 2006. Yuki is
also the Japanese vocabulary word for "snow".