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Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
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Meaning and etymology of the Hebrew name Immanuel
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Immanuel 
The Hebrew name Immanuel occurs twice in the Old Testament, both times in Isaiah, both in prophesies concerning the Messiah. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet writes, "Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." In 8:8 he writes, "...and the spread of [the Euphrates', see v 7] wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel."
Seven centuries later, Joseph finds Mary, his wife to be, with child and is understandably disgruntled. But an angel from God visits him in a dream and quotes Isaiah, saying that Joseph's little family is the target of a famous, seven hundred year old prophesy. The Child will be called Immanuel eventually, but for now he should be named Jesus (Matthew 1:19-25).
Where, in this context, exactly the name Jesus (=Joshua) came from is not immediately clear, but Immanuel is not the only name Isaiah pinned on the Messiah. In 9:6 he writes, "And his name will be called Palayaas (Wonderful Counselor), Elgebur (Mighty God), Abiad (Eternal Father), Sarshalom (Prince of Peace). Jesus, of course, became known by all those names.
The name Immanuel consists of two parts:
1a) The Hebrew preposition  (im), meaning 'with'. It comes from the unused root  ('mm) that also yields ('am), a people;  (me'im), from or with; ('am), paternal kinsman;  ('umma), against, beside (see the name Ammi).
1b) The nu-part in Immanu comes from the plural form in which the Im-part is put. The Hebrew language only very sparsely utilizes the verb 'to be,' and when it should be obvious that some form of that verb should be somewhere in the sentence, it's simply omitted. In English the plural goes to the pronoun ('with me' becomes 'with us'), and that makes the plural of the preposition 'with' impossible to translate literally. The word (im) means 'with me' and the word  (immanu) means 'with us.'
2) The Hebrew word  (El), the common abbreviation of the word  Elohim, denoting the genus God.
Right after Isaiah names Immanuel for the second time (8:8), he says, "Devise a plan but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us" (v10). The Hebrew of the last two words of this sentence is  ; an exact replica of the name Immanuel.
The name Immanuel means God (Is) With Us. However, we've already said that the verb 'to be' is usually omitted in Hebrew but actually something more nuanced is going on. Hebrew uses the verb 'to be' only when a behavior is specified that defines whatever is doing the behaving. In Hebrew a sentence like "the dog is outside" does not reflect a dog dozing in the shade, but a dog displaying behavior by which we recognize that it's a dog. Perhaps it's running after a squirrel and barking like there's no tomorrow; whatever, when the Hebrew says that the dog is, the dog is busy being a dog.
And that means that when God calls Himself I AM, He means that He's very busy doing His thing. The name Immanuel, however, lacks the verb to be, and denotes a passive presence of the Most High.
Immanuel means God Resides Among Us.
Other names that contain the word 'am are
Amalek,
Amasa,
Ammiel,
Ammihud,
Ammihur,
Amminadab,
Ammishaddai,
Ammizabad,
Ammon,
Amram,
Balaam,
Ben-ammi,
Bileam,
Gomorrah,
Ibleam,
Ithream,
Jashobeam,
Jeroboam,
Lo-Ammi,
Rehoboam and
Ummah.
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