Changes of Meaning in Biblical and Modern Given Names of the YIQTOL Noun Pattern

The biblical Hebrew tense system has two aspects: the perfective, indicating a completed action, and an imperfective aspect, denoting an action that has not yet ended. From the period of the rabbinic sages of the first centuries CE to today’s Modern Hebrew, an absolute tense system has been the norm, employing past, present, and future. This change in the system of tenses influenced the meaning of names created in the Qatal and Yiqtol patterns. The reason for the changed meanings is Modern Hebrew speakers’ lack of proficiency in the biblical system of tenses. To shed light on the language and culture of Modern Hebrew speakers, this article presents biblical and modern given names in the Yiqtol pattern and explains the changes in the modern names.