Genesis 17:5

Thy name shall be Abraham. Abram was the first of several men whose names God changed. Names were of much greater importance to the ancients than they are to us. All Semitic names have meanings, and usually consist of a phrase or sentence that expresses a wish, or perhaps gratitude, on the part of the parent. In view of the importance people themselves attached to names, God changed the names of certain men to make them harmonize with their experiences, past or future. Abram, meaning “exalted father,” does not appear in this form elsewhere in the Bible, but is found under the form Abiram, meaning “my father is exalted” (see Num. 16:1; 1 Kings 16:34). That the name Abraham is only an extended form of Abram, as some commentators maintain, is unlikely in view of the explanation given in this verse. With our present knowledge of the various Semitic languages current in Abraham’s time, however, it is not easy to explain the name Abraham. It is still best to take recourse to the Arabic word ruham, as several generations of Bible expositors have done. The word ruham means “great number,” and may have existed in ancient Hebrew, though it does not occur in Hebrew literature available today. The name Abraham would accordingly be translated “father of a great number,” which agrees with the explanation God gave to the patriarch after changing his name, “a father of many nations have I made thee.”