The Bible itself teaches you to read names this way. Mothers explain a birth-name in the same breath as the child’s fate. God renames people when their role changes. Prophets act out puns on names. Later Jewish midrash and the Church Fathers only pressed a method the stories already use.
Old Testament
Adam (’adam) — “human,” tied to ’adamah, ground. The earthling from earth.
Eve (Hawwah) — “living / life-giver.” Mother of all living.
Cain (Qayin) — Genesis ties it to qanah, “I have acquired.” Also echoes “smith.” The one who takes.
Abel (Hevel) — “breath, vapor.” The life that vanishes. Ecclesiastes uses the same word for vanity.
Seth — “appointed / placed.” The line that replaces Abel.
Noah (Noach) — “rest, comfort.”
Abraham — Avram “exalted father” becomes Avraham “father of a multitude.”
Sarah — “princess.” From Sarai, “my princess,” opened to the nations.
Isaac (Yitzhaq) — “he laughs.” Sarah’s laugh, Abraham’s laugh, the child’s name. Joy that should not have happened.
Ishmael — “God hears.” The cry in the wilderness.
Jacob (Ya‘aqov) — “heel-grabber,” hence “supplanter.”
Israel (Yisra’el) — “he strives with God” / “God strives.”
Esau / Edom — hairy; “red.”
Judah (Yehudah) — “praise.” Leah: “this time I will praise the LORD.” The royal and messianic line.
Joseph (Yosef) — “may he add.” Also a pun on “taken away” my shame. The added son who saves.
Benjamin — “son of the right hand” (Rachel said Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”; Jacob renamed him).
Moses (Moshe) — in the story, “drawn out.” Historically likely Egyptian “born of.” The drawn-out one who draws Israel out. Exodus says Moses is “drawn out” of water. Historically the name is probably Egyptian ms (“born of,” as in Thutmose). Both can be true for reading: the narrator wants “drawn out.”
Aaron (Aharon) — uncertain. Often linked to “mountain,” “ark,” or “enlightened.”
Miriam — debated: “bitter,” “beloved,” or Egyptian “beloved.”
Joshua (Yehoshua) — “YHWH is salvation / YHWH saves.” Same name as Jesus. The one who brings them in.
Samuel (Shemu’el) — “heard of God” / “his name is God.” Hannah was heard.
Saul (Sha’ul) — “asked for.” The king the people asked for.
David (Dawid) — “beloved.”
Solomon (Shelomoh) — from shalom, peace / wholeness.
Jonathan — “YHWH has given.”
Ruth — “companion, friendship.”
Naomi / Mara — “pleasant” / “bitter.”
Boaz — “in him is strength.”
Deborah — “bee.”
Gideon — “hewer, cutter.”
Samson (Shimshon) — “little sun,” from shemesh. Strength and the sun-hero pattern.
Job (Iyyov) — often “persecuted” or “where is the father?” The name fits the book either way.
Isaiah (Yeshayahu) — “YHWH saves.” Same root as Joshua / Jesus.
Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) — “YHWH exalts” or “YHWH throws.”
Ezekiel (Yechezqel) — “God strengthens.”
Daniel — “God is my judge.”
Hosea — “salvation.”
Joel — “YHWH is God.”
Amos — “burden-bearer.”
Jonah (Yonah) — “dove.”
Micah — “who is like YHWH?”
Habakkuk — “embrace.”
Zechariah — “YHWH remembers.”
Malachi — “my messenger.”
Elijah (Eliyahu) — “YHWH is God.”
Elisha — “God is salvation.”
Melchizedek — “king of righteousness.” King of Salem, “peace.” Hebrews reads the name as theology.
Emmanuel — “God with us.” Already an OT name (Isaiah 7)
New Testament
Jesus (Yeshua / Yehoshua) — “YHWH saves” or “YHWH is salvation.” Matthew says it out loud: you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The whole book is in the name. Greek Iēsous is just that Hebrew name in Greek clothes.
Christ is a title, not a name: Mashiach / Christos, “anointed.”
Immanuel — see above.
John (Yochanan) — “YHWH is gracious.”
Zechariah — “YHWH remembers.” The silenced father who learns that God has not forgotten.
Elizabeth (Elisheva) — “my God is an oath.”
Mary (Miryam) — same as Miriam. The new bitterness/beloved at the beginning of the new Exodus.
Joseph — “may he add.” The dreamer who again guards the family in Egypt.
Peter (Petros) / Cephas (Kepha) — “rock.” Simon (“he has heard”) is renamed
James — English for Ya‘aqov, Jacob.
Andrew — Greek “manly.”
Philip — “lover of horses.”
Bartholomew — “son of Talmai.”
Thomas (Ta’om) — “twin.”
Matthew (Mattityahu) — “gift of YHWH.”
Judas / Judah — “praise.”
Simon the Zealot — Simon again; “zealot” is the role.
Nathanael — “God has given.”
Nicodemus — “victory of the people.”
Lazarus (El‘azar) — “God has helped.”
Martha — Aramaic “lady.”
Mary Magdalene — Mary of Magdala (the tower).
Barabbas — “son of the father.” The crowd chooses a bar-abba instead of the Son.
Stephen — “crown.”
Saul / Paul — Saul “asked for”; Paul from Latin paulus, “small.” The proud name and the humbled one.
Barnabas — Acts glosses it: “son of encouragement.”
Timothy — “one who honors God.”
Mark — from Latin Marcus (tied to Mars).
Luke — from Lucanus / “light” by later association, not Hebrew