Names of God - Definition and Overview

Monotheistic faiths believe that there is a supreme being, who is necessarily unique, and the different names given to that being in different languages could in principle be translated as English God. However, the "real" name of God plays an important role in some cultures.

• Aten is the earliest name of a God associated with monotheistic thought. See also the Great Hymn to the Aten by Akhenaten.

• Shang Ti 上帝 (Hanyu Pinyin: shang di) was a supreme God worshipped in ancient China. It is also used to refer to the Christian God in the Standard Mandarin Union Version of the Bible.

• Ahuramazda "Lord Wisdom" is the name of the supreme benevolent God in Zoroastrianism.

• In the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, the name of God is YHWH and Elohim. See The names of God in Judaism.

• Jesus Christ is the name of God incarnate in Christianity. Jesus is a personal name, and Christ means "the anointed" (translating Messiah). Most Christians believe in a divine Trinity, i.e. a single God manifest in God the Father, Son of God and Holy Spirit.

• Allah is the most frequently used name of God in Islam. It originally simply meant "the deity", and is properly translated as "God" in English. See also 99 Names of God.

• Trimurti is the Hindu "Trinity". See Vishnu/Krishna, Shiva, Brahma. See also Vishnu sahasranama.

• Abraxas is a god uniting the dualistic concepts in Gnosticism. See also Monad.

• In Sikhism God is One Entity and has no gender. God is referred to as Waheguru, meaning Wonderful Lord; Satnam meaning True Name; On-kar meaning Creator. God according to Guru Nanak is beyond full comprehension by humans and can be called by an infinite number of names.

• In the effort to translate the Bible into every language (see SIL), the Christian God has usually been named after a concept that was present in the language before Christianity. God itself is an example of this, the word having earlier referred to Germanic pagan deities. Greek Theos was used for the supreme God even before Christianity, in the Septuagint, translated to Latin Deus by Saint Jerome. Other names of the Christian God that have a history of pagan meanings include Slavic Bog, Finnish Jumala, Japanese Kami 神.

See also

• Goddess
• List of deities