What Bible names start with G?

Men named in the Bible with G names include Gideon, Gad, Gershom, Gaius and Gamaliel, and Gabriel is an angel's name in scripture. George and Gregory are Christian through saints and have no biblical bearer.

Was Gaius the Roman soldier whose servant was healed?

No. Matthew 8:5-6 never names the centurion of Capernaum, and none of the five New Testament passages that name a Gaius describes him as a soldier.

What does Gideon mean?

Behind the Name gives "feller, hewer," from Hebrew gada', "to cut, to hew." His second name, Jerubbaal, is explained in Judges 6:32 as "Let Baal contend against him."

Christian Boy Names Starting With G: Gaius in Acts, Romans and 3 John, and Why Gideon Became Jerubbaal

Acts 19:29 calls one Gaius a Macedonian travelling with Paul, and Acts 20:4 lists another as "Gaius from Derbe." Gaius therefore belongs to at least two men before Romans, 1 Corinthians and 3 John use the name again.

Gideon, the Old Testament judge, carries a second name instead. Judges 6:32 says he was called Jerubbaal after he pulled down an altar of Baal.

Gad, Gershom and Gamaliel are also men in the Bible, and the verses for Gad and Gershom record what was said when each was named. Gabriel is an angel's name in scripture, while George and Gregory come to Christian families through saints.

Quick Facts

Passages naming a Gaius: Five: Acts 19:29, Acts 20:4, Romans 16:23, 1 Corinthians 1:14 and 3 John 1
Gideon's second name: Jerubbaal, "Let Baal contend against him" (Judges 6:32)
Words spoken at a naming: Leah's "Good fortune!" for Gad; Moses' "I have been an alien" for Gershom
Saint names: George, a 3rd-century martyr, and Gregory, the name of several early saints including Pope Gregory the Great
Gabriel as a saint's name: Gabriel Possenti, a Passionist student canonized in 1920

Is the Gaius of Romans the Gaius of 3 John?

The text itself keeps two men called Gaius apart. Acts 19:29 names Gaius and Aristarchus as "Macedonians who were Paul's travel companions," while Acts 20:4 lists "Gaius from Derbe," a town in Asia Minor rather than Macedonia.

Gaius was one of the most common Roman first names, carried by Gaius Julius Caesar and by Gaius Octavius, the later emperor Augustus, according to Behind the Name. With a name that ordinary, several Christians around Paul could easily share it.

Five New Testament passages that name a Gaius
Passage	How the text describes him	Can the text tell him apart?
Acts 19:29	A Macedonian travelling with Paul, dragged into the theater at Ephesus with Aristarchus	Yes: his home region is stated
Acts 20:4	"Gaius from Derbe," one of the men accompanying Paul	Yes: Derbe places him outside Macedonia, so he is not the Gaius of Acts 19:29
Romans 16:23	"Host to me and to the whole church," sending greetings with Erastus the city treasurer	No: the verse gives no home town
1 Corinthians 1:14	One of only two Corinthians Paul says he baptized, with Crispus	No: often taken as the host of Romans 16:23, but neither verse names the other
3 John 1	"The beloved Gaius," to whom the elder writes	No: nothing links him to Paul's companions

Romans 16:23 and 1 Corinthians 1:14 are often read as one man, a Corinthian whom Paul baptized and who later opened his house to the church, and the NRSVUE cross-references the two verses. That identification comes from reading the letters together, since neither verse mentions the other.

The Gaius of 3 John stands apart, because the letter gives him no town and no tie to Paul. The elder calls him "the beloved Gaius" and says he loves him "in truth," and the passages in Acts and Paul's letters add nothing to what is known of him.

None of the five is a Roman soldier. In Matthew 8:5-6 the centurion of Capernaum who asks Jesus to heal his servant, a word the NRSVUE notes can also mean child, is never named, so any name given to him comes from outside the Gospel.

Why was Gideon also called Jerubbaal?

Gideon's second name dates from the morning the townspeople found the altar of Baal broken down and the sacred pole beside it cut down. When they told his father Joash to bring Gideon out to die, Joash answered, "If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down" (Judges 6:28-31).

Judges 6:32 turns that reply into a name: "Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, 'Let Baal contend against him,' because he pulled down his altar." The verse explains the name as a challenge to Baal to answer the man who wrecked his altar.

The narrator keeps both names in use, opening the Midianite campaign in Judges 7:1 with "Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon)." Behind the Name records him as the judge who led the outnumbered Israelites against the Midianites and killed their two kings, a campaign that began with his call by the angel of the LORD earlier in Judges 6.

After the victory the Israelites asked Gideon to rule over them and to pass the rule to his son and grandson. Judges 8:23 records his refusal: "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you."

Behind the Name derives Gideon from Hebrew Gid'on, "feller, hewer," from gada', "to cut, to hew." The meaning fits the act that earned his second name, since the sacred pole was cut down, although Judges never draws that connection itself.

English speakers have used Gideon as a given name since the Protestant Reformation, and Behind the Name notes that it was popular among the Puritans.

Gad and Gershom were named with a cry and a sentence about exile

When Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son, it was Leah who named him, saying "Good fortune!"

The NRSVUE footnote to Genesis 30:11 gives the sense of Gad as "fortune," so the name records the words of Leah, who named him, not of Zilpah, who bore him.

Gershom was the son of Moses and Zipporah, a daughter of Reuel, and his father named him with the words "I have been an alien residing in a foreign land" (Exodus 2:22). The NRSVUE note says only that Gershom resembles the Hebrew word for alien, so the name echoes that word without being defined as it.

Saint George: a Cappadocian soldier, and a dragon added later

Behind the Name records Saint George as a 3rd-century Roman soldier from Cappadocia who was martyred during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian. The dragon belongs to a later layer: "Later legends describe his defeat of a dragon," and medieval art often showed him with it.

Eastern Christians honored George first, and crusaders returning from the East brought his stories to Western Europe. He became patron of England, Portugal, Catalonia and Aragon, yet the name stayed rare in England until the German-born George I took the British throne in the 18th century.

The name comes from Greek Georgios, built on georgos, "farmer, earthworker." Christians in India use it too, notably the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, who write it Jōrjj in Malayalam.

Which Saint Gregory does the name honor?

Gregory comes from Late Greek Gregorios, built on gregoros, "watchful, alert," which Behind the Name traces to a verb meaning "to awaken." It names six early saints called Gregory, from the 3rd to the 6th century.

Gregory Thaumaturgus: 3rd century
Gregory the Illuminator: 4th century
Gregory of Nyssa: 4th century
Gregory of Nazianzus: 4th century
Gregory of Tours: 6th century
Gregory I, the Great: 6th-century pope, reformer and Doctor of the Church

No single Gregory owns the name: Behind the Name credits the renown of all these saints with keeping it common among Christians through the Middle Ages.

Gregory the Great is the only pope among the six, and 15 later popes have borne the name. In a homily on the Gospels he also taught about the angel choirs, including the archangels.

Gabriel and Gamaliel: a Passionist saint and a leader of Manasseh

Each of these names has a human bearer apart from the figure it is best known for.

Gabriel: Francesco Possenti, born at Assisi in 1838, took the religious name Gabriele dell'Addolorata, joining the angel's name Gabriel to a title of Mary, when he received the Passionist habit on 21 September 1856. He was canonized in 1920, and Leo XIII and Pius X wished him regarded as the chief patron of young people.
Gamaliel: long before Gamaliel the Pharisee of Acts, Numbers 1:10 gives the name to Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, the leader from the tribe of Manasseh.