🔼The name Naggai: Summary
- Meaning
- Shining
- Etymology
- From the verb נגה (nagah), to lighten or reflect light.
🔼The name Naggai in the Bible
There is only once Naggai (or Nagge, according to some translations) mentioned in the Bible, and that is the son of Maath, and father of Hesli, in the Lucan genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth, roughly in between Zerubbabel and Joseph, Jesus' father-by-law (Luke 3:25).
The Lucan author, who traces Jesus' ancestry through Nathan, son of David, mentions Naggai but his colleague Matthew, who goes through Solomon, omits him. Naggai's name is quite similar to that of Nogah, who was a lesser known son of David (1 Chronicles 3:7 and 14:6).
🔼Etymology of the name Naggai
The Greek name Naggai (Ναγγαι) is most probably a transliteration of an original Hebrew name נגי (Nagai) or perhaps even נגהי (Nogahay), which would both have derived from the verb נגה (nagah), meaning to lighten:
נגה
The verb נגה (nagah) means to lighten, or to reflect light. Nouns נגה (nogah) and נגהה (negoha) mean brightness, a lightning up or a reflecting of light.
The final י (yod) is probably a mark of possession, which would make this name an adjective, ethnonym or the phrase My Brightness or Brightness Of. It may also be the remnant of the name יהוה, which is YHWH, or the name of the Lord.
🔼Naggai meaning
For a meaning of the name Naggai, Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary) goes with the adjective and reads Shining. But the name Naggai may also mean My Brightness or even Illuminated By Yah.