Nathan
Encyclopedia
Nathan is a masculine given name
. It is derived from the Hebrew verb נתן meaning to give (standard Hebrew Natan, Yiddish Nussen or Nosson, Tiberian Hebrew
Nāṯān). The meaning of the name in Jewish culture could be rendered "he [God] has given" or "he will give".
The related name Elnathan could be rendered "Gift of God". Four different people named Elnathan are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible
: one at , and three in . Similar ancient names are Nathaniel
, with the same meaning as Elnathan, and Jonathan which signifies "YHWH has given". Nathan can also be used as a nickname for Nathaniel
.
Familiar forms of Nathan used in English include Nat, Nath, Nate and Nathaniel.
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
. It is derived from the Hebrew verb נתן meaning to give (standard Hebrew Natan, Yiddish Nussen or Nosson, Tiberian Hebrew
Tiberian Hebrew
Tiberian Hebrew is the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh and related documents in the Roman Empire. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization...
Nāṯān). The meaning of the name in Jewish culture could be rendered "he [God] has given" or "he will give".
The related name Elnathan could be rendered "Gift of God". Four different people named Elnathan are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
: one at , and three in . Similar ancient names are Nathaniel
Nathaniel
Nathaniel is a male name and surname. It comes from the Hebrew name נְתַנְאֵל/Nethan'el meaning "God has given"...
, with the same meaning as Elnathan, and Jonathan which signifies "YHWH has given". Nathan can also be used as a nickname for Nathaniel
Nathaniel
Nathaniel is a male name and surname. It comes from the Hebrew name נְתַנְאֵל/Nethan'el meaning "God has given"...
.
Familiar forms of Nathan used in English include Nat, Nath, Nate and Nathaniel.
Hebrew Bible
- NathanNathan (Prophet)Nathan the Prophet was a court prophet who lived in the time of King David and Queen Bathsheba. He came to David to reprimand him over his committing adultery with Bathsheba while she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite whose death the King had also arranged to hide his previous transgression.His...
, a prophet who lived in the time of Kings David and Solomon - NathanNathan (son of David)Nathan was the third of four sons born to King David and Bathsheba in Jerusalem. He was an older brother of Solomon.In the New Testament, the genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke traces Jesus' lineage back to King David through the line of Nathan, although the Gospel of Matthew...
, son of David and his wife Bathsheba - In Nathan is the name of the father of Azariah and of the father of Zabad, two of Solomon's chief administrators. It is not clear whether both men had the same father
- In Nathan from ZobahZobahZobah or Aram-Zobah was the capital of an early Aramean state in southern Syria, at one time of considerable importance. In I Samuel xiv...
is listed as the father of Igal - In another Nathan is listed as a descendant of JerahmeelJerahmeelThe name Jerahmeel appears several times in the Tanakh. It means "He will obtain mercy of God" or "God pities" or "May God have compassion".-Bearers of the name:There are probably three distinct persons of that name in the Tanakh...
, of the tribe of Judah - In yet another Nathan is the brother of Joel, one of David's elite warriors
- In Nathan is the name of one of Ezra's companions who are sent to Iddo to ask for temple workers to replace the missing Levites
- In Nathan son of Binnui is listed as one who divorced a foreign wife and sent her and her children away
Later times
- Rabbi NathanRabbi NathanNathan the Babylonian , also known as Rabbi Nathan, was a tanna of the third generation , the son of a Babylonian exilarch. For unknown reasons he left Babylonia, and his bright prospects there, to settle in the land of Israel, where he was made chief of the school at Usha...
, 2nd century tanna - Nathan of GazaNathan of GazaNathan Benjamin ben Elisha ha-Levi Ghazzati or Nathan of Gaza was a theologian and author of Hemdat Yamim, born in Jerusalem, then in the Ottoman Empire, who became famous as a prophet for the alleged messiah, Sabbatai Zevi.-Biography:...
, 17th century prophet - Nathan AdrianNathan AdrianNathan Adrian is an American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist who currently holds the American record in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle ....
, American swimmer - Nathan AltermanNathan AltermanNathan Alterman was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator who – though never holding any elected office – was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
(1910–70), Israeli poet, journalist, and translator - Nathan AmosNathan AmosNathan Amos is an international rugby union player for Israel. As of 2010, Amos is only one of a few Israeli rugby players who ply their trade abroad.- Northern Ireland :...
, South African born-Israeli rugby union player - Nathan BeauregardNathan BeauregardNathan Beauregard, real name Nathan Bogard, was an African American blues singer and guitarist....
(1890s-1970), American musician - Nathan Bedford ForrestNathan Bedford ForrestNathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...
(1821-1877), Civil War general in the Confederate Army - Nathan BirnbaumNathan Birnbaum----Nathan Birnbaum was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker and nationalist. His life had three main phases, representing a progression in his thinking: Zionist phase ; Jewish cultural autonomy phase which included the promotion of the Yiddish language; and religious phase...
(1864-1937), Austrian journalist and Jewish philosopher - Nate ClementsNate ClementsNathan D. Clements is an American football cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills 21st overall in the 2001 NFL Draft...
(born 1991), American football player - Nathan CoeNathan CoeNathan Coe is an Australian football goalkeeper who plays for SønderjyskE.-Club career:Born in Brisbane Coe started his career with Brisbane Strikers. He moved to Italian Internazionale and later to Dutch PSV Eindhoven. Here he won the 2006 Eredivisie. On 31 January 2007 he moved to Danish F.C...
, Australian soccer player - Nathan ConnollyNathan ConnollyNathan Connolly is a Northern Irish musician, who is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for alternative rock band Snow Patrol.-Early life:...
, lead guitarist for Snow Patrol - Nathan EinhornNathan EinhornNathan Einhorn was a journalist and Executive Secretary of the American Newspaper Guild in New York from 1938 to 1946. He was a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and allegedly served as a major link between Soviet intelligence and the CPUSA.- Source :* John Earl Haynes...
, American journalist - Nathan Fagan-GayleNathan Fagan-GayleNathan Abraham Lauren Fagan-Gayle known commercially as Nathan and more recently Starboy Nathan is a British R&B singer, most famous for his Top 40 Singles "Come into My Room" and "Diamonds".-Early life:...
(born 1986), British musician known simply as Nathan - Nathan FillionNathan FillionNathan Fillion is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.He has acted in traditionally distributed...
(born 1971), Canadian actor - Nathan GambleNathan GambleNathan Gamble is an American child actor who made his feature film debut in Babel , for which he was nominated for a 2007 Young Artist Award....
(born 1998), American actor - Nathan GreeneNathan GreeneNathan Greene is a contemporary American artist and painter.While Bill Frist was the Senate Majority Leader, a lithograph of a Greene painting hung in his office. A Greene painting hangs in the office of the US Senate chaplain Barry Black...
, American artist - Nathan Jonas Jordison, American Drummer for the band Slipknot.
- Nathan HaleNathan HaleNathan Hale was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British...
(1755-1776), an American patriot serving as a spy during the American Revolution - Nathan HandwerkerNathan HandwerkerNathan Handwerker was a Polish-American entrepreneur known for creating the Nathan's Famous brand of hot dogs.- Biography :Handwerker, a Polish Jew, immigrated to the United States in 1912...
(1891-1974), Polish-American entrepreneur - Nathan HauritzNathan HauritzNathan Michael Hauritz is an Australian cricketer who has represented Australia in Tests, One-dayers and Twenty20 Internationals. He is mainly noted for his off spin bowling....
(born 1981), Australian cricketer - Nathan KressNathan KressNathan Karl Kress is an American film and television actor. A professional child model and actor since the age of three, he is best known for his role as Freddie Benson on the Nickelodeon television series iCarly.-Early life:...
(born 1992), American Actor - Nathan LaneNathan LaneNathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, American actor - Nathan McCallNathan McCallNathan McCall is an African-American author who grew up in the Cavalier Manor section of Portsmouth, Virginia.As the stepson of a Navy man, McCall also grew up in various locations, such as Morocco and Norfolk, Virginia. After serving three years in prison, he studied journalism at Norfolk State...
(born 1955), American author - Nathan Militzok (born 1923), American basketball player
- Nathan MilsteinNathan MilsteinNathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...
(1903-1992), Ukrainian-American violinist - Nathan PostNathan PostNathan Woodworth Post was the 8th and 10th Governor of American Samoa. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1904, and commanded the USS Detroit and the Naval Recruiting Station in Omaha, Nebraska. He served two terms as governor: from March 14 to July 14, 1913 and from October 2...
(1881-1938), 7th and 10th Governor of American Samoa - Nathan RobertsonNathan RobertsonNathan James Robertson is an English badminton player who has achieved international success in both the men's events and the mixed doubles event...
(born 1977), English badminton player - Nate SaintNate SaintNathanael "Nate" Saint was an evangelical Christian missionary pilot to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca....
(1923–1956), American missionary pilot - Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (born 1985), British actor
- Natan YonatanNatan YonatanNatan Yonatan was an Israeli poet.His poems have been translated from Hebrew and published in more than a dozen languages, among them: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Yiddish....
(1923–2004), Israeli poet - Nathan ZachNathan ZachNathan Zach is an Israeli poet.-Biography:Born in Berlin, Germany, to a German father and an Italian mother, Zach immigrated to what was then known as Palestine in 1936 and served in the IDF during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
(born 1930), Israeli poet
Fictional characters
- Prince NathanPrince NathanPrince Nathan is a fictional character and son of Valiant in the comic strip "Prince Valiant." Nathan is the son of Prince Valiant of Thule and Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles. He was born early in the seventh century, near the beginning of the reign of Justinian, Emperor of the East...
in the comic strip Prince Valiant - Nathan the Wise, eponymous protagonist in the 1779 play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Big NateBig NateBig Nate is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. The strip is about a boy named Nate Wright, a rebellious and energetic sixth-grader, and his classmates and teachers. Nate is portrayed as a boy with little interest in studies or conforming to standards. Because of...
, eponymous comic strip character - Nate the GreatNate the GreatNate the Great is a series of novels written by Marjorie Sharmat and illustrated by Marc Simont, with occasional co-authorship by Mitchell Sharmat or Craig Sharmat , and recent illustrations by Martha Weston or Jody Wheeler...
, eponymous protagonist of the book series by Marjorie W. Sharmat - Nathan Algren, protagonist of the film The Last SamuraiThe Last SamuraiThe Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
- Captain Nathan Bridger, of the cult science fiction show Seaquest DSVSeaQuest DSVseaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...
- Nathan Detroit, a character in the novel and musical Guys and DollsGuys and DollsGuys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...
- Nathan Drake (character)Nathan Drake (character)Nathan "Nate" Drake is the fictional protagonist of the Uncharted video game series, developed by Naughty Dog. He is a playable character in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and appears in the motion comic prequel...
, protagonist of the video games Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Nathan Explosion, a character in the cartoon series MetalocalypseMetalocalypseMetalocalypse is an American animated television series, created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, which premiered on August 6, 2006 on Adult Swim...
- Nathan Ford, mastermind of TNT's crime-drama LeverageLeverage (TV series)Leverage is an American television drama series on TNT that premiered in December 2008. The series is produced by director/executive producer Dean Devlin's production company Electric Television...
- Nathan Grantham in the movie CreepshowCreepshowCreepshow is a 1982 American horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. The film's ensemble cast included Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G...
- Nathan Graves, protagonist of the video game series Castlevania: Circle of the MoonCastlevania: Circle of the MoonCastlevania: Circle of the Moon, known simply as Castlevania in the PAL region and as in Japan, is a video game created by Konami only for the Game Boy Advance...
- Nathan Hale, protagonist of the PS3 game series ResistanceResistance (series)Resistance is a science fiction horror series of first-person shooter and third-person shooter video games developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita video game consoles.The series takes place in an...
- Nathan Horton,a minor character in the NBC soap opera Days of our LivesDays of our LivesDays of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
- Nathan Landau, a character in the novel Sophie's ChoiceSophie's Choice (novel)Sophie's Choice is a novel by William Styron published in 1979. It concerns a young American Southerner, an aspiring writer, who befriends the Jewish Nathan Landau and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish survivor of the Nazi concentration camps...
by William Styron - Nathan NeverNathan Neverthumb|200px|right|Cover for Nathan Never #1.Nathan Never is a black-and-white, science fiction Italian comic book, published monthly in Italy since 1991 by Sergio Bonelli Editore. It is written by Michele Medda, Antonio Serra and Bepi Vigna...
, eponymous protagonist of the Italian science fiction comic book - Nathan PetrelliNathan PetrelliNathan Petrelli, portrayed by Adrian Pasdar, is a fictional character on the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. He is a New York lawyer-turned-senator with the power of self-propelled flight. Ambitious and pragmatic, Nathan has a decidedly anti-hero streak, which exacerbates his complex...
, a character in the NBC science fiction series Heroes - Nathan ScottNathan ScottNathan Royal Scott is a fictional character on The CW television series One Tree Hill, portrayed by James Lafferty. He was the second protagonist during the first six seasons; but following Lucas Scott's departure, Nathan has become the main character and central figure of the show. Nathan is Lucas...
, a character in the television series One Tree Hill - Nathan Sims, a character in the Australian mockumentary series We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the YearWe Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the YearWe Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year is an Australian mockumentary TV series created, written and starring Chris Lilley and directed by Matthew Saville.It follows the story of five unique Australians, who have each made a large achievement...
and its follow-up, Angry Boys - Nathan Wuornos, a character in the television series HavenHaven (TV series)Haven is a supernatural drama television series loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid. The show, filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, is an American/Canadian co-production. The one-hour drama premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy...
, based on Stephen King's short story The Colorado Kid - Nathan ZuckermanNathan ZuckermanNathan Zuckerman is a fictional character who appears as the narrator or protagonist of many of Philip Roth's works of fiction.-Character:...
, narrator or protagonist in many of Philip Roth's works of fiction
See also
- NathanNathanNathan is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Hebrew verb נתן meaning to give . The meaning of the name in Jewish culture could be rendered "he [God] has given" or "he will give".The related name Elnathan could be rendered "Gift of God"...
(disambiguation page) - Nathan (surname)Nathan (surname)Nathan is a surname derived from Hebrew נתן meaning Given .-People with this surname:*Abie Nathan , Israeli humanist and peace activist...
- Jonathan (name)
- NathanielNathanielNathaniel is a male name and surname. It comes from the Hebrew name נְתַנְאֵל/Nethan'el meaning "God has given"...
- All pages beginning with Nathan