1309: samuel Jul 11, 2018

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While plenty of names from Biblical Hebrew changed and morphed in different ways to create a diverse array of derivatives such as with John and 'Jacob'. Others, however, have changed relatively little over the millennia and through different cultures. 'Samuel', for instance, either comes from שם האלוהים (Shem Alohim) or שמע אלוהים (Sh'ma Alohim) meaning "G*d has heard" or "name of G*d". This same shift from [ʃ] to [s] is also a factor with names like 'Simon'. Similar names to 'Samuel' exist all over Europe with very little difference, unlike those aforementioned others. However, it is unclear where the probably related Samantha comes from, though likely it is a Greek compound.
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