TalkHebrew.net Online Hebrew community

We named our son Elijah, and would like to know if anyone can confirm the Hebrew translation for his name, as I would like to have it put on a quilt.  Thank you!

In Hebrew it is spelled;  אליה

thank you!  i also found this אליהו ...there seems to be one little difference...any input?

To me, the two forms are simply spelling variants. There is however much written about the differences in spelling. Some information can be found at http://www.koltorah.org/volume_15/28_Tza...Pesach.htm  under the heading 'The Missing Vav'
The form אליהו is used most often in the scriptures. The form אליה only occurs five times.
As a name they are both translated the same in English Bibles, but in Hebrew; אליה is pronounced Eliyah (Elijah) and אליהו is pronounced Eliyahu (Elijahu)
Hope this helps.

Just joined, and noticed this post - Isaiah is very similar; it is spelt ישעיה in the title of the book, and ישעיהו in verse 1!

(Incidentally, why when the father of Isaiah is clearly spelt אמוץ (Amots), is the English version spelt Amoz?)

Shalom...

The common transliteration of צ in English is to a z. Consider ציּון (Zion) צבעון (Zibeon) צדוק (Zadok) etc.

Thanks David

So Zion pronounced in Hebrew is actually "tsee'on" I assume? Beginning to realise that I say a lot of Bible names and places wrong!

Thanks again

Yes, tsee'on would be correct. Here it is with nikkud (if nikkud will display in the forum)
צִיֹּון

As to correct pronunciation, it depends on what language you are communicating in. Zion is grammatically correct according to the rules of English grammar just as pronouncing  י as a j sound would be when it is not part of a vowel; as is seen in the common pronunciation of Elijah which began this thread.

Personally I adhere to the biblical pronunciation of Hebrew when speaking. For example, for me, ו is almost always a w sound as opposed to the v of modern Hebrew and  ע takes on a deep guttural almost gulping g sound instead of the usual close to silent form in the modern, as well as hard and soft forms of ב ד פ ת. This is due to the way I learned Hebrew as a child although it makes communicating difficult at times. Some sounds of letters are not naturally occurring in English or other Indo-European  languages and so may be difficult to pronounce correctly anyway.