7 entries from the /names/ index. Names with their own individual page link out.
Meaning: Hebrew "ewe."
Figure: Second wife of Jacob; mother of Joseph and Benjamin; died in childbirth (Genesis 29-35).
Rachel is the second wife of Jacob, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, who died in childbirth and whose tomb at Bethlehem became a major site (Genesis 35:19-20). Jeremiah's prophecy of "Rachel weeping for her children" (Jeremiah 31:15) is quoted in Matthew 2:18 about the Holy Innocents.
Meaning: Hebrew of contested etymology; traditional interpretations include "to bind" or possibly "captivating."
Figure: Wife of Isaac; mother of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 24-27).
Rebekah is the wife of Isaac whose calling at the well (Genesis 24) is read in Christian tradition as a model of the Church called by Christ. The English form Rebecca and the Hebrew Rivka are both in continuous Christian use; modern English-speaking families typically use the Rebecca spelling.
Meaning: Hebrew "behold, a son" (Leah's exclamation at his birth, Genesis 29:32).
Figure: Firstborn son of Jacob; the tribe of Reuben (Genesis 29-30).
Reuben is the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, whose role in the brothers' near-killing of Joseph (Genesis 37:21-22) shows him in a less villainous light than the others. The name has come back into Christian use in English-speaking Protestant and Catholic families in recent decades.
Meaning: Latin shortened form of Margherita (Greek "pearl").
Figure: Saint Rita of Cascia; Augustinian widow and nun (1381-1457).
Saint Rita of Cascia is the fifteenth-century Italian widow and Augustinian nun whose life included a difficult marriage, the deaths of her sons, and her later entrance into religious life. The Catholic calendar commemorates her on May 22; she is the patron saint of impossible causes.
Meaning: Spanish "rosary," referring to the Holy Rosary devotion.
Figure: The Holy Rosary; Our Lady of the Rosary.
Rosario is the Spanish Marian name referring to the Holy Rosary, the Catholic devotional prayer cycle in honor of the Virgin Mary. The Catholic feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is October 7, commemorating the Christian victory at Lepanto in 1571 attributed to the intercession of the Virgin through the rosary. The name has been in continuous Hispanic Catholic use.
Meaning: Latin "rose" (the flower).
Figure: Saint Rose of Lima; first saint of the New World (1586-1617).
Saint Rose of Lima is the early-seventeenth-century Dominican tertiary, the first canonized saint of the Americas. The Catholic calendar commemorates her on August 23. The name has been in continuous Christian use across the centuries in its many forms (Rose, Rosa, Rosalind, Rosamund).
Meaning: Hebrew of contested etymology; traditionally interpreted as "friend" or "companion."
Figure: Moabite ancestor of David and Jesus; book of Ruth.
Ruth is the Moabite woman whose loyalty to her mother-in-law Naomi and whose eventual marriage to Boaz make her an ancestor of David and of Jesus through David. Her statement "Where you go, I will go" (Ruth 1:16) is among the most-cited verses in Christian weddings. The book of Ruth is read in Christian and Jewish tradition as a model of providence and redemption.