Absalom (name)


Absalom is a masculine first name from the Old Testament, where Absalom is a son of King David.
The variant Avishalom
is used as the name of the father-in-law of Rehoboam in 1 Kings, who in 2 Chronicles 11:20,21 is referred to by the shorter form Avshalom. The modern Scandinavian first name, Axel, has developed from Absalon, a 12th-century Danish archbishop and statesman. The variant Absolon is a German surname.
The name was also used in medieval England. As in the biblical story, as Absalom was pursuing his father, King David, in the forest of Ephraim and had his long hair caught in a tree, the name appears to have been a nickname for a man with long or thick hair, as suggested by a passage in the Canterbury Tales,
This use as a nickname is possibly also the origin of Absalom as an English surname. The name Absalom continued to be used in English Protestantism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Hebrew name was used among Palestinian Jews in the 19th to early 20th centuries and remains current in Israel; it is mostly anglicized as Avshalom, reflecting Modern Hebrew pronunciation.

First name

;Absalom
;Absalon/Absolon
;Avishalom/Avshalom

Surname

"Absalom" is a rare English surname, recorded as early as the 13th century. It derives from the first name Absalom, which became popular in England in the 12th century. The surname remained rare throughout its existence, but it gave rise to a number of variants, such as Asplen, and via the latter, Aspling and Ashplant.
The variant Absolon is found in England as well as in France and Germany, reaching Central Europe in the late medieval period, so that Absolon is now also a Czech and Slovak surname.
;Absalom
;Absolon