Yocheved

יוֹכֶבֶד

• Gender: Female
• Origin: Biblical / Rabbinic Hebrew
• Meaning: God is glory

• Yocheved is the mother who defied Pharaoh. When the Egyptian ruler decreed that all Hebrew baby boys be drowned in the Nile, she placed her infant son Moses in a waterproof basket and set him floating among the reeds — an act of desperate courage that changed the course of history. She also raised Aaron and Miriam, giving the Jewish people three of its greatest leaders from a single household.

  Yocheved Bat-Miriam (1901–1980) is considered one of the four "mother poets" of modern Hebrew literature, winning the Israel Prize in 1972 for verse that reimagined the Land of Israel through the lives of biblical women. One of the most famous Yocheveds in Jewish history is Yocheved bat Rashi, the eldest daughter of the legendary Torah commentator, whose own scholarship helped produce three sons who became celebrated Tosafists. For parents who want to honor the fierce, protective mothers of Jewish tradition, few names deliver like this one. It carries immense depth and sounds strikingly distinctive to English-speaking ears. The meaning — "God is glory" — adds a devotional layer to what is already one of the most dramatic maternal stories in all of scripture. Rare, commanding, and impossible to forget.

• Alternate Spellings: Jochebed, Jocheved, Yochebed
• Potential Sibling Name:
  Batsheva
  ,
  Shoshana
  ,
  Aaron
  ,
  Ovadiah
• Theme: God