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Line 15: | shortform = [[Jack (given name)|Jack]], [[Jake (given name)|Jake]], [[Jay (given name)|Jay]], Jakey, [[Coby]], Jem }} '''Jacob''' is a common masculine [[given name]] of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] origin. The [[English language|English]] form is derived from the [[Latin]] ''Iacobus'', from the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|Ἰάκωβος}} (''Iakobos''), ultimately from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] {{Script/Hebrew|יַעֲקֹב}} (''Yaʿaqōḇ''), the name of [[Jacob]], biblical patriarch of the [[Israelites]], and a major figure in the [[Abrahamic religions]]. The name comes either from the Hebrew root {{lang|he| עקב}} ''ʿqb'' meaning "to follow, to be behind" but also "to supplant, circumvent, assail, overreach", or from the word for "heel", {{lang|he|עֲקֵב}} ''ʿaqeb''. The prefix “ya-” and the internal vowel “-o-” typically indicate a masculine third-person singular imperfective form in Hebrew <ref>https://www.pealim.com/dict/1544-laakov/</ref><ref>https://www.calvary.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/THE-STRUCTURE-OF-THE-HEBREW-LANGUAGE_Chapter-Ten.pdf</ref>, suggesting meanings like “he will”, “he may”, or “he shall”. It can also be taken to mean "may God protect or "may he protect" as [[Hebrew grammar]] does not specify whether the name bearer ("he") is the [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] (the one who acts) or the [[Object (grammar)|object]] (the one who is acted upon), making the interpretation open-ended."<ref>Jonathan Z. Smith, ''Map is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions'', University of Chicago Press (1978), [https://books.google.com/books?id=a8Vvzr7SeuwC&pg=PA33 p. 33].</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.behindthename.com/name/jacob|title=Meaning, origin, and history of the name Jacob|publisher = Behind the Name}}</ref> In the narrative of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], it refers to the circumstances of Jacob's birth when he held on to the heel of his older twin brother [[Esau]] (Genesis 25:26). | |||