# What is God's Name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741 "2001-11-11T07:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/1 "2001-11-11T07:31:50Z")
Pretty simple. In Judaism, he is called Yahweh, in Islam Allah. But what about in Christianity? There is some debate here. Some say Abbah. Some say Jehovah. Others say John Lennon. What is the general name for God? It it just ‘God’ or something else? ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/2 "2001-11-11T07:41:54Z")
Beauregard. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/3 "2001-11-11T07:47:38Z")
Fred. Except on tuesdays. (btw, the Arabic just means God.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@The\_Mick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mick)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/4 "2001-11-11T10:01:51Z")
Call him what you want, just don’t talk about his momma. Seriously, I don’t think he really cares what you call him. ---
**Author:** ![jaybee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6de8d8/32.png) [@jaybee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaybee)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/5 "2001-11-11T13:47:27Z")
He told Moses that his name was IAM (as in I exist). He is often referred to as the Lord our God. So the Lord would be proper. Most christian refer to him as our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Recognizing the concept that god has three ways of revealing himself to us (father, son and holy spirt). Don’t know about Buddist, Hindus, Muslims or the countless other relegions refer to him as. ---
**Author:** ![Slip\_Mahoney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Slip\_Mahoney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slip_Mahoney)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/6 "2001-11-11T14:03:23Z")
Actually, God has nine billion names. Please refrain from listing all of them, or the Universe will end. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/7 "2001-11-11T14:10:22Z")
Oh. Right. : Shuts down apocalypse inducing computer program : 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/8 "2001-11-11T16:20:38Z")
I’m doing this from memory, so I don’t have a cite. The true name of (the J/C/I) God is known as the Tetragrammaton: **YHWH** Because ancient Hebrew didn’t indicate vowel sounds with specific characters, we don’t know which proper vowel sounds go into this name. Interesting side note: in many ancient magical traditions, knowing the True Name of a Being allows you to exercise power over that Being. I’ve always found it interesting that (the J/C/I) God chose to hide His name by simply referring to Himself as “I AM” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/9 "2001-11-11T16:25:06Z")
Congrats to Slip for referencing a Hugo Award winning story. Too bad I just can’t remember _which_ story! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/10 "2001-11-11T16:52:55Z")
Not a difficult question, **Monty** – it’s “The Nine Billion Names of God,” by Arthur C. Clarke. Good story, too. ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/11 "2001-11-11T18:10:15Z")
**Clapton is God!** ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/12 "2001-11-11T19:27:31Z")
Our Father, **Harold** be Thy name… ---
**Author:** ![Vincent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Vincent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vincent)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/13 "2001-11-11T19:43:26Z")
I am not sure if all of the above is accurate. A distinction should be made between the idea, the word _god_ and his/her name. In the Islam, Judaism and in Christianity, god has no name and is referred to as god only. The word allah just means god in Arabic and people use it in other languages than Arabic to clearly point out their talking about the god of the Islam. It’s like catholics talking about _deus_ to point out it’s their god. In Judaism, it’s forbidden to actually speak out the word god; where in prayer it does have the tetragrammaton YHWH they’ll use (for instance) adonai, lord. Personally, I’m convinced the old testament was written by the ancient Slavs in Proto-Czech and that gods name is R’ehor’, in which r’ is a r-hacek, an r with an upside-down accent-circonflexe(^) (for more specifics on looks go to [http://www.v.tomaatnet.nl/rhacek.html](http://www.v.tomaatnet.nl/rhacek.html)) and is pronounced ‘rzh’. ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/14 "2001-11-11T20:05:51Z")
In Jewish tradition, the name of God was encoded as incidated above, YHWH, which was translated into the King James Bible (and most others) as LORD, with a big capital letter for the L, and small capital letters for ORD, to distinguish it from when someone says Lord in the translation. As noted above, the vowels are not written in Hebrew. Study bibles will say this in their notes. The High Priest would on the highest holy day of the year, whisper the name of God ritually in a prayer, presumably meaning that the descendants of Aaron knew exactly what the name was. (I believe the day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, but I am not sure.) No one but the high priest was authorized to utter God’s name and to do so was a blasphemy. Leading of course to the scene in Life of Brian where John Cleese is stoned for telling people they cannot say Jehovah (which the Jehovah’s witnesses, among others, believe is the true name of God.) Others say that YHWH is pronounced Yaweh (yah way). Christians for the most part believe that Jesus was the Almighty incarnate. Jesus is the Greek translation of his name. The name of the historical figure was in fact Joshua, with the J pronounced as y. So he would have been Joshua ben Joseph (Joshua son of Joseph). Isiah prophesized that the Messiah’s name would be “Emmanuel”. But unless emmanuel means something like “proclaimed holy” and was not a proper noun, Christians tend to ignore this inconsistency. When Moses talks to the burning bush, as mentioned above, the bush tells Moses to say that “I am has sent you”. The Gospel of John (please read the opening, as it is one of the greatest passages ever written) says that the Word was God, with God, etc. (This was written in Greek, and the Greek here is Logos, meaning account, telling, history). John goes on in 1 John 4:7-8 to say that the very nature of God is Love. My own thought is that God is something more encompassing than all of us, the entire universe and all that could ever be or be imagined. Just as a name really is only a reference to a person, no name is adequate to describe God. If you want to know God, learn God’s teachings and do his work, then it will become clear to you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/15 "2001-11-11T20:06:48Z")
And to cover the other possiblities listed by the OP, “Jehova” is a variant on the Tetragrammaton, and “Abba” is the Aramaic word for “Daddy”. I won’t even touch the Lennon one. ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/16 "2001-11-11T23:03:53Z")
I was looking for that, and you came through! ---
**Author:** ![Alfie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Alfie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/17 "2001-11-12T00:10:09Z")
The Biggest of the Big Guys has a lot of self-esteem. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/18 "2001-11-12T00:40:59Z")
I know a guy that felt sorry for god because he didn’t have a first name like jesus christ or holy ghost so he named him roy. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/19 "2001-11-12T03:31:23Z")
**Howard.** Our Father, who art in Heaven, _Howard_ be thy name. And like many fathers, he gave his son his name as a middle name: Jesus Howard Christ. But Jesus preferred to just use the initial: Jesus H. Christ. ---
**Author:** ![samboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@samboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samboy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gods-name/92741/20 "2001-11-12T03:52:11Z")
Yeah, nice try DPWhite, but I don’t believe a word. Just look at the number of your post. Just jokes, hold the lightning bolt.