I recently found out my grandmother’s maiden name is Ishmael. I’ve been curious as to the origins of this last name and thought back to Ishmael in the Bible. Could it be possible that I’m a descendant of Ishmael? Or am I way out in the left-field with this idea? If you have no idea, I understand, just thought I’d give it a try.<\/p>\n\t
For many thousands of years, people were known by a single name, or a qualifier was added to distinguish them. The qualifier might be the name of who their father was (“Simon Barjonah,” which means “Simon son of Jonah”), what city they were from (“Mary Magdalene,” which means “Mary from Magdala”), or what nation they belonged to (“Uzzah the Hittite”).<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until several hundred years ago that western civilization started using fixed last names. Most likely you have an ancestor named Ishmael, but not the Ishmael of the Bible, though he might have been named after that particular character. Ishmael was a popular boy’s name among the Puritans and other Protestant religions. Probably in the early usage, you will find “son of” before that name for several generations before it was dropped for convenience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I recently found out my grandmother’s maiden name is Ishmael. I’ve been curious as to the origins of this last name and thought back to Ishmael in the Bible. Could it be possible that I’m a descendant of Ishmael? Or am I way out in the left-field with this idea? If you have no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[998],"class_list":["post-14229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-names"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-confused-by-the-names-of-esaus-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":0},"title":"I’m confused by the names of Esau’s wives","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a question regarding the question asked to you: \"Was Mahaleth a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father Isaac?\" Part of your reply mentioned Genesis 28:9, \"so Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael.\" In my Bible,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2655,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-ishmaels-descendants\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":1},"title":"What happened to Ishmael’s descendants?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What happened to Ishmael's descendants? Answer: God promised Abraham, \"And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation\" (Genesis 17:20). Ishmael's initial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/03\/Nabatean-Kingdom-300x197.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24497,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-of-noahs-three-sons-did-the-gentiles-come-through\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":2},"title":"Which of Noah’s three sons did the Gentiles come through?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which of Noah's three sons did the Gentiles come through? Answer: All three sons. \"Gentiles\" means \"nations\" and was used for anyone who wasn't an Israelite (a descendant of Jacob). Abraham descended from Shem, but through Ishmael came the Arabs, and the Edomites came through Esau. Abraham's nephew, Lot,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32758,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-esau-and-ishmaels-descendants-considered-gentiles\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":3},"title":"Were Esau and Ishmael’s descendants considered Gentiles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We are studying Genesis 36 and the generations of Esau.\u00a0 Several questions arose that have generated some good discussion, but we are needing some help. The questions asked \"Were Esau and Ishmael's families considered Gentiles? Or were they Jews?\u00a0 We are a little confused about when the Jewish nation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4843,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-do-the-arabs-come-from\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":4},"title":"Where do the Arabs come from?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where do the Arabs come from? From which patriarch? Many people say Ishmael, but Ishmael had an Egyptian mother. Where in the Bible is the name Arab first used? Answer: In the answer to a prior question, \"What happened to Ishmael's descendants?\" I gave a detailed list of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49906,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hagar-and-exclusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":14229,"position":5},"title":"Hagar and Exclusion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford This became apparent last week when we studied the use of the story of Lot by Jesus and Peter. Today, gospel preachers like to bag on Lot. They condemn him for \"pitching his tent towards Sodom\" and point to the corruption of his family with grim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Navez_Agar_et_Ismael-198x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}