🔼The name Neri: Summary
- Meaning
- My Lamp, Bright
- Etymology
- From the verb נהר (nahar), to flow or to shine.
🔼The name Neri in the Bible
The name Neri occurs only once in the Bible, although it's most probably a Greek transliteration and truncation of the Hebrew name Neriah. The one and only Neri is mentioned by the Lucan author as ancestor of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:27).
Neri is also the grandfather of Zerubbabel, which would make Neri roughly contemporary with Neriah the father of Baruch (Jeremiah 32:12).
🔼Etymology of the name Neri
The name Neri derives from the verb נהר (nahar), which means to flow or to shine:
נהר
The verb נהר (nahar) means to flow or stream and is used for both water and light (which in turn demonstrates that the ancients had Relativity Theory; see our expanded article for more). Noun נהר (nahar) means river or stream. Noun נהרה (nahara) means light or daylight and מנהרה (minhara) "place of nahara". Nouns נר (ner) and ניר (nir) mean lamp, and nouns מנורה (menorah) and מנרה (menorah) mean lampstand.
The ι upon which our name ends is a transliteration of the Hebrew letter י (yod), which often indicates a possessive form (my light, or the adjective bright), or it might be regarded as what's left of the name יהוה, which is YHWH, or Yahweh; the name of the Lord.
🔼Neri meaning
The name Neri either means My Lamp or Bright or perhaps even Yah's Brightness.