What biblical names start with B for boys?

Bartholomew and Barnabas are New Testament names, while the Old Testament names come from five different books: Benjamin from Genesis, Bezalel from Exodus, Barak from Judges, Boaz from Ruth and Baruch from Jeremiah. Benedict, Boniface, Bernard and Basil are saints' names rather than names of men in the Bible.

Is Barnaby the same name as Barnabas?

Yes. Behind the Name lists Barnaby as a variant of Barnabas and notes that Barnabas itself has been an occasional English name since after the 12th century and is now rare, while Barnaby is still moderately common in Britain.

Christian Boy Names Starting With B: Was the Apostle Bartholomew Also Nathanael?

Bartholomew appears in all four lists of the twelve apostles and never once in John's Gospel, while Nathanael, whom Philip brings to Jesus in John 1:45, appears in no other Gospel. That pattern is why many scholars, as the Catholic Encyclopedia reports, think the two names belong to one man.

The identification rests on the order of names in the lists and on John's silence, not on any verse that equates the two, and the same encyclopedia names its weak point.

The other B names come from two directions. Barnabas, Benjamin, Boaz, Barak, Baruch and Bezalel are men in the Bible, while Benedict, Boniface, Bernard and Basil came into Christian use through saints.

Quick Facts

Bartholomew in the apostle lists: Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:14 and Acts 1:13
Nathanael in John's Gospel: John 1:45 and John 21:2
Bartholomew's name: Bartholomaios, "son of Talmai" (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Two readings of Barnabas: "Son of encouragement" (Acts 4:36) or possibly "son of the prophet" (Behind the Name)
Names from saints: Benedict, Boniface, Bernard and Basil

Bartholomew in the lists, Nathanael in John: one apostle or two?

Bartholomew and Nathanael never appear in the same Gospel. Matthew, Mark and Luke name Bartholomew among the Twelve and never mention a Nathanael, while John tells how Nathanael came to Jesus and never uses the name Bartholomew.

Where Bartholomew and Nathanael are named
Passage	Wording (NRSVUE)	Who stands next to him	Is Nathanael named?
Matthew 10:3	"Philip and Bartholomew"	Philip, paired with him	No
Mark 3:18	"and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew"	Philip, just before him	No
Luke 6:14	"and Philip, and Bartholomew"	Philip, just before him	No
Acts 1:13	"Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew"	Matthew, paired with him; Philip two names earlier	No
John 1:45	"Philip found Nathanael"	Philip, who brings him to Jesus	Yes; Bartholomew is not named
John 21:2	"Nathanael of Cana in Galilee"	Simon Peter, Thomas and the sons of Zebedee	Yes; Bartholomew is not named

The case for one man starts from that order. In three of the four lists Philip's name comes directly before Bartholomew's, and in John 1:45 Philip is the disciple who finds Nathanael and brings him to Jesus.

John 21:2 adds a second clue. When the risen Jesus appears by the lake, Nathanael of Cana is one of the disciples gathered there with Simon Peter, Thomas and the sons of Zebedee, all of them men named in the lists of the Twelve.

The Catholic Encyclopedia lists these reasons and adds that Nathanael came from Galilee, where Jesus found most of the Twelve. It calls the result a "chain of circumstantial evidence" that is "ingenious and pretty strong."

The same entry names the weak link: Nathanael may have been another person in whom the author of John's Gospel took a particular interest, as he did in Nicodemus, who is also missing from Matthew, Mark and Luke. Behind the Name keeps the same caution and calls Nathanael "probably" another name of the apostle Bartholomew.

Later legend adds nothing firmer: the Catholic Encyclopedia notes one legend that identifies him with Nathanael and calls the manner of his death "equally uncertain." The legend that he was flayed is why art, including Michelangelo's Last Judgment, shows him holding his own skin.

Some readers ask whether Thaddeus is another name for Bartholomew, and the lists rule that out. Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18 name Bartholomew and Thaddaeus (the NRSVUE spelling) as two separate members of the Twelve.

Bartholomew names an apostle of the four lists with certainty, and Nathanael names the disciple John describes; they may be one man, but no Gospel says so.

What "son of" means in Bartholomew, Barnabas and Benjamin

Bartholomew is built like a family label. The Catholic Encyclopedia reads the Greek Bartholomaios as "son of Talmai," an old Hebrew name that also belonged to the king of Geshur, whose daughter was one of David's wives (2 Samuel 3:3).

That reading answers whether Bartholomew is a Jewish name: according to the same entry, it shows at least that the apostle was of Hebrew descent. It may have been his own name, or it may only have marked him as Talmai's son, which is one reason scholars look for a personal name such as Nathanael.

B names explained as "son of"
Name	The "son of" reading	Who gives it
Bartholomew	Son of Talmai	Catholic Encyclopedia
Barnabas	Son of encouragement	Acts 4:36
Barnabas	Possibly son of the prophet (Aramaic bar navi)	Behind the Name
Ben-oni	Son of my sorrow	NRSVUE footnote to Genesis 35:18
Benjamin	Son of the right hand, or son of the south	NRSVUE footnote to Genesis 35:18

Barnabas is the name where the Bible's own explanation and later scholarship part ways. Acts 4:36 says the apostles gave it to Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, and explains it as "son of encouragement."

Behind the Name notes that the Aramaic original is unattested and that it may be bar navi, "son of the prophet," "though in Acts 4:36 it is claimed" to mean son of encouragement.

Benjamin received two names at one birth. In Genesis 35:18 the dying Rachel names her son Ben-oni, which the NRSVUE footnote renders "son of my sorrow," but his father calls him Benjamin.

The same footnote gives Benjamin two possible readings, "son of the right hand or son of the south."

Each of these names begins with a syllable that its gloss renders as "son," but the glosses come from different places: the text of Acts for Barnabas, a translation's footnote for Benjamin and Ben-oni, and an encyclopedia for Bartholomew.

Barnabas at Antioch and Lystra

Acts describes Barnabas's character in plain words. Sent from Jerusalem to the new church at Antioch, he is called "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 11:24).

He then went to Tarsus to look for Saul and brought him back to Antioch, where the two taught for a whole year. Acts 11:26 closes the scene with the note that "it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called 'Christians.'"

At Lystra the crowd took the two missionaries for gods: "Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker" (Acts 14:12).

The partnership later broke over Mark. Barnabas wanted to take John called Mark with them again, Paul refused, and "the disagreement became so sharp that they parted company" (Acts 15:37-39); Colossians 4:10 calls Mark "the cousin of Barnabas."

Boaz, Barak and Baruch: three men beside more famous figures

Boaz is remembered through Ruth's story more than through his own. Ruth 4:13 says that "Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife," and the genealogy that closes the book makes their son Obed the grandfather of David.

Barak led Israel's troops against Sisera only on a condition. "If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go," he tells Deborah in Judges 4:8, and she answers that the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.

That hesitation did not remove him from the list of the faithful in Hebrews 11. Verse 32 names Barak alongside Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel among the people the writer has no time to describe.

Baruch son of Neriah was Jeremiah's scribe. Jeremiah 36:4 says that Baruch "wrote on a scroll at Jeremiah's dictation all the words that the Lord had spoken to him," so this name belongs to the man who put a prophet's words in writing.

Barak and Baruch look like two spellings of one name in English, and the angel name Barakiel is read against each of them in turn.

Bezalel, the craftsman called by name

In Exodus 31:2 God tells Moses, "See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah." In the next verses God says he has filled him "with a divine spirit," which the NRSVUE notes can also be read "with the spirit of God," for designing and working in gold, silver and bronze, cutting stones and carving wood.

Bezalel is therefore the B name of a craftsman, a man whose calling in scripture is skilled work with his hands rather than preaching or battle.

The similar-looking Bezaliel is a different name. It comes from disputed lists of Watcher angels in the Enochic tradition, not from the craftsman of Exodus.

Benedict, Boniface, Bernard and Basil: B names from saints' lives

Benedict comes from the Latin Benedictus, "blessed," according to Behind the Name. The name spread among Christians after Saint Benedict, the Italian monk who founded the Benedictines in the 6th century, and 16 popes took it.

Boniface was not the missionary's first name. The Catholic Encyclopedia records him as Winfrid, or Wynfrith, and says Pope Gregory II consecrated him a regional bishop "with the name Boniface" on 30 November 722, a date some give as 723.

The same entry notes that others think he took the name earlier, at his religious profession or on his first visit to Rome. Known as the Apostle of Germany, he was martyred on 5 June 755 (or 754) and buried at the Abbey of Fulda.

A boy named Bernard shares the name of Bernard of Clairvaux, whose sermon on the guardian angels the Roman Office of Readings uses on October 2.

Basil of Caesarea, a fourth-century bishop, wrote the line about an angel beside each believer that paragraph 336 of the Catechism quotes in its teaching on guardian angels.