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Personal names are a subcategory of proper names. The latter consists of nominals that refer to a specific object, place, person, persons, or class, and no other. Personal names identify individual persons, whether divine (Tetragrammaton) or human. In English and related languages, linguists identify common nouns as having sense, but not reference. Thus ‘human’ as a common noun has sense. One can look up the word in a dictionary and find a definition. However, it does not refer to a particular human and so does not have reference. However, a personal name such as Adam does have reference…

Hypocoristic names are personal names that are shortened in spelling and pronunciation. The reason for this is usually one of convenience, though it may also be motivated by the desire to express endearment or for other purposes. Hypocoristic names and indications for the same (such as suffixes) appear in pre-Israelite West Semitic names and in names from West Semitic states surrounding Israel, Judah, and the later Jewish province or state in the 1st millennium B.C.E. (Hess 1993:191, 201–203; Cross 2006:86; Gane 2008:76–79). There are three common ways to shorten personal nam…