Caleb

Caleb (Hebrew כָּלֵב; Tiberian vocalization: Kālēḇ; Hebrew Academy: Kalev), the son of Jephunneh, is an important figure in the Hebrew Bible, noted for his faith in God when the Hebrews refused to enter the "promised land" of Canaan. When the Hebrews came to the outskirts of Canaan, the land that had been promised them by God, after having fled slavery in Egypt, Moses (the Hebrew leader) sent twelve messengers, scouts (or spies, meraglim in Hebrew) into Canaan to report on what was there—one spy representing each of the twelve (landed) tribes. Ten of the scouts returned to say that the land would be impossible to claim, and that giants lived there who would crush the Hebrew army. Only two, Joshua (from the tribe of Ephraim) and Caleb (representing Judah), returned and said that God would be able to deliver Canaan into the hands of the Hebrew nation.

The Bible records that, because of the testimony of the ten scouts, the Hebrews chose not to enter Canaan: for this disobedience, God caused them to wander in the desert for forty years before being allowed to enter Canaan and conquer it as their home. The only adult Hebrews allowed to survive these forty years and enter Canaan were Joshua and Caleb, as a reward for their faith in God. This is recorded in the Book of Numbers.

Caleb's name is spelled with the same consonants as כֶּ֫לֶב kéleḇ meaning "dog", prompting the common conclusion that the name Caleb means "dog". However, this is not clear. 1 Samuel 25:3 states that Nabal, the husband of Abigail before David, was of the house of Caleb. In Hebrew, the word used for this reference is כָּלִבִּי Kālibbî, and the presence of the -î suffix exposes the double consonant indicating two ב radicals fused together. The Hebrew word לֵב lēḇ, meaning "heart", has the same stem form לִבּ libb-. If כָּ kā- is to be understood as the preposition kə- meaning "as; like", and the vowel as the pretone syllable promoted to ā, then the name כָּלֵב Kālēḇ could also be understood to mean "as the heart". Indeed, a more flowery form of the word for "heart" is לֵבָב lēḇāḇ, where the two ב radicals are not fused but separated by a vowel. Biblical text uses the flowery expression כְּלֵבָב kəlēḇāḇ "as the heart" and כִּלְבַב kilḇaḇ "as the heart of", and there is also the modern expression כִּלְבָבִי k'l'vavi "after my own heart".

Assuming this is even remotely accurate, then his name either means:

1: "Dog"
2: "As the heart"
3: "After my own heart"

I would like to suggest a fourth entry: All of the above.