Moses (surname)

Moses is a surname derived from the Biblical Moses. It can be of either Jewish, Welsh, or English origin.[1] The Hebrew form of the name, Moshe, is probably of Egyptian origin, from a short form of any of various ancient Egyptian personal names, such as Ramesses and Tutmose, meaning "conceived by (a certain god)". The Arabic form of the name is Musa. However, very early in its history it acquired a folk etymology, being taken as a derivative of the Hebrew root verb mšh, "to draw (something from the water", a reference to the story of the infant Moses being discovered among the bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus 2:1-10).[2] As a Welsh family name, it was adopted among Dissenter families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As a North American family name, it has been an anglicization of foreign forms of the name, such as Moise, Moshe, or Mozes.[3]

People with this name include:

See also

References

  1. ^ Last name: Moses
  2. ^ Hanks & Hodges, Oxford Dictionary of Names, page 377
  3. ^ Hanks, Dictionary of American Family Names, page 624-5

Bibliography

  • Hanks, Patrick, Dictionary of American Family Names (2003), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
  • Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges, Oxford Dictionary of Names, (1988), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211592-8


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