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.
Folk meaning vs. language history. 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.”
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.” He will give rest from the curse of the ground—and the ark comes to rest.
Abraham — Avram “exalted father” becomes Avraham “father of a multitude.” The new name is the promise.
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.” He takes Esau by the heel, then the blessing.
Israel (Yisra’el) — “he strives with God” / “God strives.” After the night wrestle. The nation is named.
Esau / Edom — hairy; “red.” The stew and the land.
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.
Aaron (Aharon) — uncertain. Often linked to “mountain,” “ark,” or “enlightened.” The text never glosses it; he is mouth and priesthood beside Moses.
Miriam — debated: “bitter,” “beloved,” or Egyptian “beloved.” Bitter water, song at the sea.
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. The name of the reign that is supposed to be whole.
Jonathan — “YHWH has given.”
Ruth — “companion, friendship.” She clings.
Naomi / Mara — “pleasant” / “bitter.” She names her own story.
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.” The reluctant sign.
Micah — “who is like YHWH?”
Habakkuk — “embrace.”
Zechariah — “YHWH remembers.”
Malachi — “my messenger.”
Elijah (Eliyahu) — “YHWH is God.” The sentence he makes Israel choose.
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) waiting for a face.
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. Matthew pins it on him.
John (Yochanan) — “YHWH is gracious.” The Baptist and the Evangelist both live in that sentence.
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 when his role is spoken.
James — English for Ya‘aqov, Jacob.
Andrew — Greek “manly.”
Philip — “lover of horses.”
Bartholomew — “son of Talmai.”
Thomas (Ta’om) — “twin.” The doubled one who must touch.
Matthew (Mattityahu) — “gift of YHWH.”
Judas / Judah — “praise.” The name of the tribe and of the betrayer. The story is not subtle.
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.” The first to die already wears the name of the prize.
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 a Hebrew sentence.
How to read the “code” without forcing it
The Bible does encode role in names, in layers:
Explicit etymology. Isaac, Jacob, Israel, Samuel, Nabal (“fool”), Bethlehem scenes, Jesus. The narrator stops and tells you.
Renaming as plot. Abram→Abraham, Sarai→Sarah, Jacob→Israel, Hoshea→Joshua, Simon→Peter, Saul→Paul. Destiny is a new word.
Typology. Joshua and Jesus share a name because the second Joshua finishes the entry the first began. Joseph the dreamer and Joseph the husband of Mary both go down to Egypt to keep a remnant alive.
Irony. Judas means praise. Bethlehem is “house of bread” and the Bread is laid in a feed-trough. Barabbas is “son of the father.”
Theophoric ordinary names. Many names just mean “YHWH has heard / given / remembered.” That is the theology of Israel: the God who answers.
Philo, the rabbis, and Origen all read names as compressed destiny. You can do the same if you let the text’s own puns lead, and if you mark “uncertain” when the dictionary is guessing (Aaron, Job, Miriam).
If you want a next step in that style: read Genesis 1–35 and every birth/renaming speech aloud. Then Matthew 1 and Luke 1–2. The New Testament is already doing inner commentary on the old names—especially Yeshua, Emmanuel, and Petros.