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Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
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Meaning and etymology of the name Bel
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Bel 
Bel is the name of the patron deity of Babylon. According to The Oxford Companion To The Bible, Bel is another name of Marduk. Marduk is mentioned only once in the Bible, by the prophet Jeremiah (50:2). Bel gets a little more Biblical screen time, both from Jeremiah (50:2, 51:44) and Isaiah (46:1). The Septuagint features three apocryphal additions to the Book of Daniel, one of which is a two-parter titled Bel and the Dragon. In the Bel story, Daniel insists that food offered to Bel isn't eaten by Bel, and sets out to reveal the identity of the midnight snacker: Bel's priests, who are subsequently executed.
The name Bel is closely related to that of Baal, the patron deity of Canaan, and both names simply mean Lord (or owner, husband, etc). Both names come from the Hebrew verb  (ba'al), meaning to own, rule or possess. This verb is also used to describe a husband's relationship with his wife (Deuteronomy 24:1) and is applied to the relationship between God and man, "For your husband (ba'al) is your Maker..." (Isaiah 54:5).
It's now commonly believed that there was no actual person behind these gods, so it's without merit to say that Bel and Baal are the same. Obviously, a collective or focused religious reverence of the Babylonian culture is not the same as that of the Canaan culture, and their manifestations (namely Bel and Baal) are also not the same. And that these cultures called their gods Lord is also not so unthinkable, as modern believers do the same thing.
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