Origin: Biblical
Meaning: debated
Gender: Masculine
The name is of debated origin and meaning. It is found in the Book of Esther as the name of the adopted father of Esther, the son of Jair of the tribe of Benjamin. Mordecai was a Persian subject of Jewish extraction who refused to bow down before Haman, who as a result, proclaimed an edict to kill all Jews. Through the successful plotting of Mordecai and his adopted daughter Esther, they were both able to entrust themselves to the Persian king who upon marrying Esther, foiled Haman’s plot to annihilate the Jews.
The meaning and origin of the name itself seems to be debated. A popular theory is that it is from a Persian name, Marduku, which simply means “servant of Marduk” or “belonging to Marduk.” Marduk was the name of the supreme Sumerian creator diety who had been worshipped in Ancient Persia and Babylon. According to scholars, it would not have been unlikely for Jews to bear the name of a pagan diety as many exiled Jews took the names of their captors; among ancient Persian Jews, Marduk would have just been a general translation of “God.”
Other theories propound that it comes from various Hebrew root words, such as
- מַר, מָרִיר (mar) “bitter”
- from a Hebrew source r-d-d “bruising”
- from a Hebrew source m-r-d “contrition”
According to rabbinic literature, a Midrashic interpretation of Mordecai is that the name is from the Hebrew words, mara dochi, meaning “pure myrrh.” It is also suggested that Mordecai’s name was actually Mordecai Bilshan, based on Ezra 2:2 and Nehemiah 7:7, and thus the name has also been interpreted as meaning “master of many languages” due to the latter element, reminding readers that Mordecai was highly learned.
In the English-speaking world, Mordecai has been in use since at least the 16th-century, and seems to come into popular use after the Protestant Reformation.
Other forms of the name include:
- Mardec’hai (Breton)
- Mordechai (German/Dutch)
- Mardoqueo (Spanish)
- Mardochée (French)
- Mardocheo (Italian)
- Mordekai (Norwegian/Swedish)
- Mardocheusz (Polish)
- Mordecai (Portuguese)
- Mardohej Мардохей (Russian)
- Mordekaj (Serbo-Croatian)
- Mordokai (Finnish)
- Mardohaj Мордехай (Ukrainian)
Mordecai has not appeared in the U.S. top 1000, but Mordechai has. The latter entered the U.S. top 1000 in 2003 when it came in as the 963rd most popular male name. Mordechai disappeared and reentered in 2016 as the 998th most popular male name.
Nicknames include:
- Mordy
- Chai/Kai
Sources
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