Abba (given name)

Abba is a form of ab, meaning "father" in many Semitic languages. It is used as a given name, but was also used as a title or honorific for religious scholars or leaders. (The word abbot has the same root.)

It also seems to be a shortened form of the name Abraham.

Persons with the given name Abba, or who are known by that title

Jewish/Babylonian/Palestinian religious scholars

Given name

A given name (also known as a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name) is a part of a person's full nomenclature. It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name is bestowed upon, or given to a child, usually by its parents, at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the child's immediate family.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is more commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

Relationship to other names

ABBA

ABBA (stylised ᗅᗺᗷᗅ) were a Swedish pop group who formed in Stockholm in 1972. With members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, ABBA became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1975 to 1982. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 at the Dome in Brighton, UK, giving Sweden its first triumph in the contest, and were the most successful group ever to take part in the competition.

ABBA's record sales figure is uncertain and various estimates range from over 140 to over 500 million sold records. This makes them one of the best-selling music artists, and the second best-selling music group of all time, after the Beatles. ABBA was the first group to come from a non-English-speaking country to enjoy consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.

Raba Bar Jeremiah

Abba or Raba (Rabbah) Bar Jeremiah (cited in the Jerusalem Talmud as R. Abba bar Jeremiah;Hebrew: רבה בר ירמיה or רבי אבא בר ירמיה) was Babylonian amora of the third century, the son of Jeremiah b. Abba and a pupil of Rab. He lived at Sura and transmitted to his generation the sayings of Rab and Samuel. One of his sayings, several of which are preserved in Palestinian sources, may be here quoted. Prov. ix. 1-3: "Wisdom hath builded her house," etc., refers to the Messianic age. The "house" is the newly erected Temple at Jerusalem; the "seven pillars" are the seven years following the defeat of Gog and Magog, which are indicated in Ezek. xxxix. 9; the "feast" is that described in Ezek. xxxix. 17; and the verse, "She hath sent forth her maidens," etc., means: "The Lord sent forth the prophet Ezekiel with the message to the birds and beasts" (Lev. R. xi.).

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilhelm Bacher (1901–1906). "Abba". Jewish Encyclopedia.  Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography: Bacher, Ag. Pal. Amor. iii. 529, 530; Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ed. 1882, ii. 336.W.

Ab (Semitic)

Ab or Av (ʾĀḇ; related to Akkadian abu), sometimes Aba or Abba, means "father" in most Semitic languages.

Arabic

Ab (أَب), from a theoretical, abstract form ʼabawun (triliteral ʼ-b-w) is Arabic for "father". The dual is ʼabawāni or ʼabāni "two fathers" or "mother and father" (ʼābāʼi-ka meaning "thy parents").

Li-llāhi ʼabū-ka is an expression of praise, meaning "to God is attributable [the excellence of] your father".

As a verb, ʼ-b-w means "to become [as] a father to [somebody]" (ʼabawtu) or "to adopt [him] as a father" (ta'abbā-hu or ista'bā-hu).

In the construct state, Abū (أبو) is followed by another word to form a complete name, e.g.: Abu Mazen, another name for Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu may be used as a kunya, an honorific. To refer to a man by his fatherhood (of male offspring) is polite, so that ʼabū takes the function of an honorific. Even a man that is as yet childless may still be known as abū of his father's name, implying that he will yet have a son called after his father.

Name

A name is a term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies, not necessarily uniquely, a specific individual human. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is, when consisting of only one word, a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes called "common names" or (obsolete) "general names". A name can be given to a person, place, or thing; for example, parents can give their child a name or scientist can give an element a name.

Caution must be exercised when translating, for there are ways that one language may prefer one type of name over another. A feudal naming habit is used sometimes in other languages: the French sometimes refer to Aristotle as "le Stagirite" from one spelling of his place of birth, and English speakers often refer to Shakespeare as "The Bard", recognizing him as a paragon writer of the language. Also, claims to preference or authority can be refuted: the British did not refer to Louis-Napoleon as Napoleon III during his rule.

Identifier

An identifier is a name that identifies (that is, labels the identity of) either a unique object or a unique class of objects, where the "object" or class may be an idea, physical [countable] object (or class thereof), or physical [noncountable] substance (or class thereof). The abbreviation ID often refers to identity, identification (the process of identifying), or an identifier (that is, an instance of identification). An identifier may be a word, number, letter, symbol, or any combination of those.

The words, numbers, letters, or symbols may follow an encoding system (wherein letters, digits, words, or symbols stand for (represent) ideas or longer names) or they may simply be arbitrary. When an identifier follows an encoding system, it is often referred to as a code or ID code. Identifiers that do not follow any encoding scheme are often said to be arbitrary IDs; they are arbitrarily assigned and have no greater meaning. (Sometimes identifiers are called "codes" even when they are actually arbitrary, whether because the speaker believes that they have deeper meaning or simply because he is speaking casually and imprecisely.)