🔼The name Zecher: Summary
- Meaning
- Memorial, Mindful
- Etymology
- From the verb זכר (zakar), to remember or to review.
🔼The name Zecher in the Bible
There is only one Zecher (or Zacher, as the King James and the Young translations have it, or Zeker, according to the New International Version) mentioned in the Bible. He is listed among the sons of "the father of Gibeon" and his wife Maacah (1 Chronicles 8:31). In 1 Chronicles 9:35 we learn that the father of Gibeon was called Jeiel, but in 9:37, Zecher is called Zechariah. This Zecher or Zechariah plays no further role in the Bible.
🔼Etymology of the name Zecher
The name Zecher comes from the verb זכר (zakar), meaning to remember:
זכר
The verb זכר (zakar) means to remember, to deliberately review, or to cause to remember or review — by means of public oration, urging and pleading, physical memorials, and so on.
Noun זכר (zeker) means remembrance, memory, memorial or invocation. Noun זכרון (zikkaron) or זכרן (zikkaron) denotes a memorial or token — a memorial day, altar-plates, stones, crowns, books, proof of citizenship, even spoils of war. Noun אזכרה ('azkara) refers to a memorial-offering.
Noun זכור (zakur) and noun and adjective זכר (zakar) mean male. This noun denotes the male of humans and animals, and marvelously illustrates the parallel between sexual reproduction and the learning process, which is so overly prevalent in the Bible.
🔼Zecher meaning
For a meaning of the name Zecher, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Memorial, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Mindful. BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate the name Zecher but does list it under the verb זכר (zakar), meaning to remember.