What biblical names start with R?

Reuben, Reuel, Rehoboam and Rufus are men named in the Bible, and Jethro and Hobab are two more names from the same Midianite family. The R women of scripture, Rachel, Rebekah, Ruth and Rahab, appear on the girls' R list.

Is Jethro the same person as Reuel?

Exodus gives both names the same title, priest of Midian, and the same role as Moses' father-in-law (Exodus 2:16-21; 3:1; 18:1), and Behind the Name treats Reuel as another name for Jethro. None of these verses explains why he has two names.

What does Rufus mean?

Rufus means "red-haired" in Latin. King William II of England was called Rufus for his red hair, and the name came into general English use after the Protestant Reformation, according to Behind the Name.

Christian Boy Names Starting With R: Reuel, Jethro or Hobab, and the Two Rufus Verses

Reuel is the R name with the most tangled record, because the Bible calls the man who bore it by other names too. Exodus 2:18 names Moses' father-in-law Reuel, Exodus 3:1 and 18:1 call him Jethro, and Judges 4:11 gives the title "father-in-law of Moses" to a man named Hobab.

The other biblical R names are easier to place. Reuben tries to save Joseph in Genesis 37, Rehoboam loses Israel's loyalty in 1 Kings 12, and Rufus appears in two New Testament verses that may or may not mean the same man.

Raymond, Roch and Robert come through saints rather than scripture. Raphael is an angel's name and also the name of a Carmelite canonized in 1991.

Quick Facts

Reuel: Exodus 2:18, the priest of Midian and father of Zipporah
Jethro: Exodus 3:1 and 18:1, with the same title, priest of Midian
Hobab: Son of Reuel in Numbers 10:29; father-in-law of Moses in Judges 4:11
Two Rufus verses: Mark 15:21 (son of Simon of Cyrene) and Romans 16:13 (greeted by Paul)
Saint names: Raymond, Roch (the French form of Rocco) and Robert

Was Moses' father-in-law called Reuel, Jethro or Hobab?

Exodus uses both Reuel and Jethro for one man, the priest of Midian whose daughter Zipporah married Moses. In Exodus 2:18 the daughters return "to their father Reuel," and in Exodus 3:1 Moses keeps "the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian."

Every verse that names Moses' father-in-law
Verse	Name used	What the verse calls him
Exodus 2:16-21	Reuel	The priest of Midian, father of seven daughters, who gives Moses his daughter Zipporah
Exodus 3:1	Jethro	"his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian"
Exodus 18:1	Jethro	"Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's father-in-law"
Numbers 10:29	Hobab and Reuel	"Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses's father-in-law," a phrase that can describe either man
Judges 4:11	Hobab	"Hobab the father-in-law of Moses," ancestor of the Kenites

Numbers 10:29 is where the names cross. The words "Moses's father-in-law" follow "Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite," so they can describe Hobab or his father Reuel, and the sentence alone does not settle which.

If the title belongs to Reuel, Hobab is the son of Moses' father-in-law. Judges 4:11 points the other way, because it speaks of "the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses," and none of these verses explains why one man carries more than one name.

Behind the Name gives Reuel's meaning as "friend of God," from Hebrew rea' ("friend") and el ("God"), and treats Reuel as another name for Jethro; the Greek spelling Ragouel links Reuel to the archangel Raguel. The author J. R. R. Tolkien carried Reuel as his middle name, John Ronald Reuel.

What did Jethro tell Moses?

Jethro's advice comes in Exodus 18, after he has heard "all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel." In verse 18 he warns Moses that "the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone."

In verse 19 he offers his "counsel" and begins with Moses' own part: Moses should "represent the people before God and bring their cases to God."

A boy named Reuel shares his name with this man: a father-in-law who saw Moses wearing himself out and told him so plainly.

Rufus in Mark 15:21 and Romans 16:13

Mark 15:21 identifies the man who carried Jesus' cross as Simon of Cyrene, "the father of Alexander and Rufus." Rufus is named there only as a son, and the verse says nothing else about him.

Among Paul's greetings in Romans 16, verse 13 reads, "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord," and adds a greeting to his mother, whom Paul calls "a mother to me also."

Neither verse says that the two are the same man. A family choosing Rufus can therefore have the cross-bearer's son in mind, or the man Paul greets in his letter to Rome, without the texts joining the two.

Rufus began as a Roman cognomen meaning "red-haired" in Latin, according to Behind the Name, which also notes that several early saints bore the name, including the Rufus of Paul's letter.

Reuben tried to save Joseph, while Rehoboam's harsh answer drove Israel away

Reuben is the son Leah names in Genesis 29:32, saying, "Because the Lord has looked on my affliction, surely now my husband will love me." The NRSVUE note gives the sense of the name as "see, a son."

His defining act comes when his brothers turn on Joseph. In Genesis 37:21-22 he tells them, "Shed no blood; throw him into this pit," and the narrator explains that he meant to rescue Joseph and restore him to his father.

Rehoboam's record runs the other way. In 1 Kings 12:13-14 the king sets aside the older men's advice and tells the people, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke."

Verse 15 says the king did not listen to the people and calls it "a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord" to fulfill a word spoken through Ahijah. The name Rehoboam recalls the king whose harsh reply ended Israel's loyalty to David's house, and in verse 16 the people go home with the cry "To your tents, O Israel!"

Raymond, Roch and Robert: two Raymonds' patronages, the plague saint, and Saint Rupert

Behind the Name says several medieval saints, mostly Spanish, bore the name Raymond, and it names two with very different patronages. Saint Raymond Nonnatus is the patron of midwives and expectant mothers, and Saint Raymond of Peñafort is the patron of canonists, the specialists in church law.

The name itself is Germanic Raginmund, made of regin ("advice, counsel, decision") and munt ("protection"). Lists that translate Raymond as "wise protector" are compressing those two elements into one phrase.

Roch is the French and Polish form of Rocco, the name of a 14th-century French saint who nursed plague victims and then caught the disease himself. Behind the Name calls him the patron saint of the sick and traces the name, possibly, to Germanic hruoh, "crow, rook."

Robert comes from the Germanic Hrodebert, "bright fame." Behind the Name records several saints with the name, the earliest known as Saint Rupert, which comes from an Old German variant.

A saint named Raphael

Raphael Kalinowski, a Discalced Carmelite, was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II on 17 November 1991, so the name Raphael has a modern saint as well as the archangel.