Erez

• Origin: Hebrew אֶרֶז
• Meaning: “cedar.”
• Gender: masculine
• Pronunciation: ER-ehz

The name comes directly from the Hebrew word for the cedar tree אֶרֶז. This name did not come into use as a masculine given-name among Jews until after the creation of the State of Israel in 1945. It may have been popularized by Aleksander Zederbaum (1816-1893), a Polish-Jewish journalist who founded the Hebrew language newspaper, Ha-Melitz who often used “Erez” as a pseudonym in his writings.

It is also the name of a Kibbutz and of Erez Crossing, the latter being the name of a border crossing on the Israeli-Gaza border.

Sources

• Meaning, origin and history of the name Erez – Behind the Name
• Erez (disambiguation) – Wikipedia
• Erez – Kveller
• ‘erez Meaning in Bible – Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon – New American Standard (biblestudytools.com)