Simeon

Meaning

The name is derived from Simeon, son of Jacob and Leah, patriarch of the Tribe of Simeon. The text of Genesis (29:33) states that the name of Simeon refers to Leah's belief that God had heard that she was hated by Jacob, in the sense of not being as favoured as Rachel.

Implying a derivation from the Hebrew term shama on, meaning "he has heard"; this is a similar etymology as the Torah gives for the theophoric name Ishmael ("God has heard"; Genesis 16:11), on the basis of which it has been argued that the tribe of Simeon may originally have been an Ishmaelite group (Cheyne and Black, Encyclopaedia Biblica). Alternatively, Hitzig, W. R. Smith, Stade, and Kerber compared שִׁמְעוֹן Šīmə‘ōn to Arabic سِمع simˤ "the offspring of the hyena and the female wolf"; as supports, Smith points to Arabic tribal names Simˤ "a subdivision of the defenders (the Medinites)" and Samˤān "a subdivision of Tamim".

In classical rabbinical sources, the name is sometimes interpreted as meaning "he who listens [to the words of God]" (Genesis Rabbah 61:4), and at other times thought to derive from sham 'in, meaning "there is sin", which is argued to be a prophetic reference to Zimri's sexual miscegenation with a Midianite woman, a type of relationship which rabbinical sources regard as sinful (Jewish Encyclopedia).

In the Bible

Simeon (son of Jacob), in the Hebrew Bible

Tribe of Simeon, one of the twelve tribes of Israel

Simeon the Just (3rd century BC?) a Jewish High Priest, also called "Simeon the Righteous" (not the same as the New Testament figure, below)

Simeon (Gospel of Luke), figure in the New Testament who blessed Jesus and his parents in the Jerusalem temple

Simeon Niger, person in the Book of Acts

Persons with the given name

Up to 1700

Ordered chronologically.

Simeon of Jerusalem (15–14 BC–c. 107 or 117), 2nd Bishop of Jerusalem, perhaps one of the Seventy Apostles sent out by Jesus

Simeon ben Gamliel, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in 50 AD

Simeon ben Gamliel II, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in c. 118 AD

Simeon Bar Kokhba, leader of the Bar Kokhba revolt

Simeon bar Yochai, rabbi of the Tannaim period, possibly the author of the Zohar

Simeon Stylites (c. 388–459 AD), Christian pillar-hermit from Sisan, Syria

Simeon Stylites III, 5th-century pillar-hermit

Simeon Stylites the Younger (521–597 AD), hermit and pillar-hermit from Antioch

Simeon, the name of one priest and one deacon martyred with Abda and Abdjesus

Simeon the Holy Fool, 6th-century Christian saint and hermit

Simeon I of Bulgaria (866–927), Bulgarian tsar

Symeon Metaphrastes (10th century?), Byzantine hagiographer

Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), Eastern Orthodox saint

Simeon (abbot) (994–1094), Abbot of Ely Cathedral

Simeon Seth (fl. 1070), Jewish Byzantine physician, writer, and grand chamberlain from Antioch

Since 1700

Ordered alphabetically by last name.

Simeon Barrow (born 2002), American football player

Semyon Belits-Geiman (born 1945), former Soviet Olympic freestyle swimmer

Simeon Brown (born 1991), New Zealand politician

Simeon B. Brown (1812–1893), American brigadier general

Semyon Budyonny (1883–1973), Soviet military commander

Simeon Cottle (born 2004), American basketball player

Simeon Coxe (usually known only as Simeon), American musician, singer and synth player of Silver Apples

Simeon Jocelyn (1799-1879), minister and abolitionist

Simeon Mangiuca (1831–1890), Austro-Hungarian Romanian folklorist

Simeon V. Marcelo (born 1953), Filipino lawyer and former Ombudsman and Solicitor-General of the Philippines

Simeon North (1765–1852), American gunmaker

Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840), French mathematician

Simeon Rice (born 1974), American football player

Simeon Woods Richardson (born 2000), American professional baseball player

Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (born 1937), Tsar of Bulgaria (1943–1946), prime minister of Bulgaria (2001–2005)