Kattah meaning

Meaning

Little

Etymology

From the verb קטן (qaton), to be small.

Related names

• Via קטן (qaton): Hakkatan, Joktan, Kitron

The name Kattah occurs only once in the Bible. It's the name of a village that came to be situated in the territory of Zebulun, together with Nahalal and some others (Joshua 19:15). In Judges 1:30 two towns of Zebulun are mentioned, which are called Kitron and Nahalol. Nahalal and Nahalol are probably the same town, and scholars assume that Kitron and Kattah are the same as well.

The etymology and thus meaning of the name Kattah is utterly unclear, and it's also quite bizarre that this town, which is clearly called Kattat, is known to us modern readers as Kattah. It appears that older versions of Hebrew used the letter ת where Biblical Hebrew uses the letter ה, and the origins a name that contains a ת can often be traced to a word that is spelled with a ה (because names are often older than narrative language). But there is no reason to call this town Kattah. The Septuagint calls it Καταναθ (Katanath) and the Vulgate transliterates it with Cateth.

Because scholars assume that the names Kattah and Kitron denote the same town, they also commonly assume that they derive from the same root, namely קטן (qatan), meaning to be small:

For a meaning of the name Kattah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Little and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Very Small.