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Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
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Meaning and etymology of the Hebrew name Ahab
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Ahab 
The name Ahab is assigned two times in the Bible; both times to not very positive characters.
The less known Ahab is a son of Kolaiah. Together with a man named Zedekiah, this Ahab falsely prophesies and behaves contemptibly and is executed by Nebuchadnessar (Jeremiah 29:21). It may or may not be a curious coincidence that both Ahab and Zedekiah are names of kings of Israel.
The famous Ahab is the wicked king of Israel, son of Omri, husband of Jezebel and nemesis of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 16:29-31, 17:1). According to the Bible, King Ahab introduces the worship of Baal in Israel (1 Kings 16:31). Archeological studies suggest that Ahab, rather than the earlier Solomon, was the great builder king of Israel.
The Oxford Companion to the Bible reads, "[...] deeply rooted north-south tensions and the Judahite perspective of the final Deuteronomic history resulted in a critical treatment of Ahab in the Bible (1 Kings 16:29-22:40); narratives describing the antagonism between Ahab and the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17-19) constitute the sharpest polemic against him."
King Ahab dies in battle against the Arameans (1 Kings 22:35). Seventy of his sons (we don't know if that were all of them) were executed by king Jehu (2 Kings 10).
The name Ahab consists of two elements. The final elements is the Hebrew word  (ab), meaning basically father (see Abba), but with applications beyond the contemporary use of father. Many times `ab is used as counselor or judge (Genesis 45:8; 2 Kings 2:12).
The first element of the name Ahab is the curious little word  (ah), meaning brother. The origins of this word are unknown; scholars suggest all kinds of possibilities but all are guessing and none guesses something original enough to warrant reproduction. We simply don't know where, in a literary sense, the Biblical concept of brotherhood comes from. Obviously kindred words are:  (ahawa), meaning brotherhood, and  (ahot), meaning sister.
But that's not where the curiousness ends. Our word meaning brother is also entirely identical to the word (ah - pronounced with a ch as in Bach; Ach! The name Ahab is therefore to be pronounced as Achab, not ey-hab), the exclamation of grief, as used for instance in Ezekiel 6:11: Ach! Alas! And it's also identical to (ah), firepot, as used in Jermiah 36:22. Judging from similar words in cognate language, these three words are really three separate idea's, but in the name of Ahab it's by no means certain which of the meanings of we're looking at.
To make matters worse: our word , though pronounced slightly different, is also spelled precisely like the word (oah), meaning jackal. This latter word comes from the unused root  ('hh), meaning cry or howl, and is probably onomatopoeic (created after a sound; like our word woof).
For a meaning of the name Ahab, NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Father's Brother and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads the similar Brother Of The Father. Even BDB Theological Dictionary take a shot at it and reads Father's Brother, but notes that it would have to be an unexplained contraction of  (Ahayab). BDB says, "In many cases however, the meaning of proper names comp. with is dubious, and perfect consistency, especially in comparison with compounds of , seems impossible.
All very well, and possibly puristically pleasing, but for any Hebrew audience the name Ahab probably didn't mean Ach Father! or Dad's A Firepot or Father's Jackal (even Father's Little Yelper). But it is quite possible that beneath the common word for brother hides a meaning that's been forgotten in time but which would make perfect sense of the name Ahab or any of the many Ah- and Ahi-names.
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