The Bible isn’t just the sacred source of Christian tradition — it’s also the ultimate baby-name book. While a handful of Old Testament names have stayed in steady rotation, scripture offers many others that are meaningful, dignified, and largely forgotten.

Here are 10 Old Testament names — ranked by modern familiarity — for parents who want something biblical, rooted, and just a little unexpected.

1. Amos

Book of Amos

A shepherd turned prophet, Amos delivered some of the Bible’s most direct warnings against corruption and moral complacency. His words still resonate: “Let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5:24).

The name means “burden-bearer,” which sounds heavy until you realize that’s exactly the point. Short, serious, and literary, Amos feels timeless rather than trendy.

Famous Amoses: Amos Oz (novelist), Amos Lee (musician), Amos Alonzo Stagg (coach)

2. Asa

1 Kings 15; 2 Chronicles 14–16

Asa was a king of Judah remembered for religious reform and a sincere effort to remove idols. Scripture presents him as faithful, if imperfect.

Often translated as “healer” or “physician,” Asa is ancient, compact, and surprisingly modern to the ear.

Famous Asas: Asa Butterfield (actor), Asa Gray (botanist), Asa Hutchinson (former governor)

3. Boaz

Book of Ruth

Boaz is the upright kinsman-redeemer who marries Ruth and becomes the great-grandfather of King David. He’s portrayed as generous, attentive, and morally grounded.

The name likely means “strength.” Short, rugged, and unmistakably biblical, Boaz feels bold without being archaic.

Famous Boazes: Boaz Yakin (filmmaker), Boaz Mauda (musician)

4. Tamar

Genesis 38; Ruth 4

Tamar plays a complicated but central role in Genesis and becomes part of the lineage of King David. Her story is difficult but ultimately redemptive.

Her name means “palm tree,” a biblical symbol of resilience and endurance. Common globally, rare in the U.S.

Famous Tamars: Tamar Braxton, Tamar Novas

5. Jethro

Exodus 3; 18

Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law, a Midianite priest who famously advised Moses on delegation — saving him from burnout long before the term existed.

The name suggests abundance or overflow and carries undeniable presence. Memorable but not for the timid.

Famous Jethros: Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Burns (musician)

6. Elihu

Book of Job

Elihu is the youngest speaker in Job, stepping in when Job’s friends fall silent. He’s thoughtful, corrective, and framed as preparing the way for God’s response.

The name means “He is my God.” Distinctly biblical and rarely used today.

Famous Elihus: Elihu Root (statesman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate)

7. Obadiah

1 Kings 18; Book of Obadiah

Obadiah was a faithful official who hid prophets from Jezebel and also authored one of the Bible’s shortest prophetic books.

His name means “servant of the Lord.” Formal, weighty, and unapologetically biblical.

Famous Obadiahs: Obadiah Stane (“Iron Man,” fictional but familiar)

8. Jair

Numbers 32; Judges 10

Jair served as a judge of Israel for 22 years and is remembered more for stability than spectacle — a rarity in Judges.

The name means “he enlightens.” Short, strong, and unfamiliar without being difficult.

Famous Jairs: Jair Bolsonaro (political figure)

9. Zerah

Genesis 38; Numbers 26

Zerah was the twin son of Judah and Tamar, remembered for his unusual birth, marked by a scarlet thread. His name endured through Israel’s genealogies.

Meaning “rising” or “dawning,” Zerah is poetic, compact, and ancient.

Famous Zerahs: Zerah Colburn (19th-century mathematical prodigy)

10. Huldah (most uncommon)

2 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34

Huldah was a prophetess consulted by King Josiah during a major religious reform — her authority unquestioned.

The name sounds ancient because it is. Deeply biblical, historically important, and virtually unused today.

Famous Huldahs: Huldah Pierce (American folk artist)

Come back tomorrow for our list of 10 underrated New Testament names!

​Baby names, Old testament, Abide, Lifestyle, Bible, Christianity, Faith 

Israeli officials claim that Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei was among those senior-ranking Iranian officials killed in Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes. While Iranian propagandists have suggested that the geriatric dictator is alive and kicking, President Donald Trump backed the Israeli account.

According to Axios, Reuters, and CNN, Israeli officials say that Khamenei — who reports previously indicated had been moved to a secure location outside the national capital of Tehran, where his compound was destroyed — is indeed dead.

‘We feel that that is a correct story.’

Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, reportedly made the same boast to U.S. officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to state outright that Khamenei has been eliminated.

Netanyahu did note, however, that attacking forces “destroyed the compound of the tyrant,” that the ayatollah’s plan to destroy Israel “is no more,” and that “there are many signs that the tyrant himself is no more.”

The Israeli prime minister and the heads of Israel’s security establishment were allegedly provided with proof of the successful assassination, namely a photo of the dictator’s body.

RELATED: World leaders respond to regime-change strikes on Iran: ‘Peacekeeper is at it again’

The White House

Trump suggested in a phone interview with NBC News on Saturday that his administration believes the Iranian dictator is dead.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people beyond, and we feel certain, we feel, we feel that that is a correct story,” said the president, adding that “the people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone.”

The Iranian state-linked Tasnim and Mehr news agencies have reportedly suggested that Khamenei is still alive — “steadfast and firm in commanding the field.”

The U.S. has yet to confirm one way or the other.

Blaze News has reached out to the White House as well as the Departments of State and War for comment.

The 86-year-old Shia radical, who has served as Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, has been antagonistic toward the U.S. and Israel, characterizing America as a “corrupt, oppressive” empire and prematurely insinuating that the American military might not be able to “get up again” after a conflict with Tehran.

Reports indicate that among the Iranian officials also believed dead are Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Javad Pourhossein, head of Iran’s foreign intelligence unit; Mohammad-Reza Bajestani, head of the security unit; Ali Kheirandish, head of the counterterrorism unit; Saeed Ehya Hamidi, adviser on the war with Israel; and at least three members of Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces.

This is a developing story.

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​Iran, Tehran, Khamanei, Assassination, Foreign entanglements, Iran strikes, Israel, Netanyahu, Regime change, Politics 

A video surfaced recently of a speaker at a Florida Education Association press conference encouraging students to walk out of school to protest federal law enforcement. Union officials have since attempted to distance themselves from the remarks, but the episode should not come as a surprise.

The FEA’s parent organization, the National Education Association, recently adopted a resolution at its annual conference explicitly supporting efforts to help students organize similar protests.

A handful of activists control workplace representation for thousands of employees who never asked for it.

The walkout controversy reveals a much deeper problem: teachers’ unions in Florida have abandoned their mission of representing workers and have become political organizations that put ideology ahead of students and the teachers they claim to represent.

What happens when a union is forced to hold a recertification election is even more revealing. Only five of the 125 union recertification votes held for employees in Florida’s K-12 schools between March 2025 and January 2026 secured the support of more than 50% of the vote. Under current law, unions that did not meet this standard won recertification anyway. Even when a majority of the workforce declined to participate, the outcome still conferred exclusive bargaining authority.

For instance, there are 2,034 instructional personnel eligible for the union in Santa Rosa County. Only 364, less than 18% of their total eligible membership, actually voted to recertify the union as the bargaining authority. In Gadsden County, it’s even worse, with only 15% of the 293 eligible instructional employees choosing to vote to recertify the union. And in Seminole County, 1,098 votes out of 4,407 possible, less than 25%, secured the union’s recertification.

The same trend is occurring at universities across Florida. At the University of South Florida, the United Faculty of Florida secured exclusive bargaining authority over 2,169 employees. How many voted for the union? Forty-one. That’s less than 2% of the workforce. At Florida A&M University, three votes out of 202 eligible voters certified a union to represent all graduate assistants.

This is a system in which a handful of activists control workplace representation for thousands of employees who never asked for it.

Here’s what makes this so consequential: Certified unions in Florida don’t just represent their members. They exercise “exclusive representation” and have sole legal authority to negotiate for every employee in the bargaining unit, whether those employees want union representation or not.

Workers who think their union isn’t serving their interests can’t negotiate directly with their employer. State law prohibits it. The union speaks for everyone, even if almost no one voted for the union.

If a union gets exclusive authority of a bargaining unit, it should be chosen by at least 50% of the employees. That’s the principle behind House Bill 995 and Senate Bill 1296, now moving through the Florida legislature.

The bills require unions to secure support from a majority of all eligible employees, not just those who happen to vote. Unions that maintain at least 60% dues-paying membership get automatically recertified. Those below that threshold would face an election to prove they represent the workers they claim to speak for.

Critics say this sets the bar too high. But consider what these unions control: negotiations over pay, benefits, working conditions, and grievance procedures. They file lawsuits in employees’ names. They consume taxpayer resources through collective bargaining and, in some cases, paid leave for union activities unrelated to contract negotiations.

Given that level of authority, shouldn’t we require genuine support from the people being governed?

The legislation includes other common-sense reforms. Right now, public employees can take paid time off for union activities that have nothing to do with collective bargaining — political campaigns, fundraising, lobbying. The proposed bills preserve paid leave for legitimate work like contract negotiations and grievances but require unpaid leave for political activities. Employees could still voluntarily pool their time off for colleagues doing union work. This protects taxpayers while preserving employees’ organizing rights.

RELATED: My school’s AI challenge raised a scary question: What do students need me for?

Andrei Apoev/Getty Images

Some will say these reforms are anti-union. They’re not. They’re pro-worker and pro-accountability. Unions with broad support have nothing to fear — they’ll be automatically recertified. Only unions that have lost the confidence of the workers they represent will face scrutiny.

The recent student walkouts show what happens when unions lose their way. Instead of focusing on teacher pay, classroom resources, or working conditions, the FEA pushed a partisan political protest that could saddle students with disciplinary consequences on their permanent records.

Teachers and families deserve better. They deserve unions that focus on delivering a world-class education, not unions that exploit their positions to advance political agendas with almost no accountability.

These bills restore democratic accountability to workplace representation. When a union speaks for Florida’s teachers and public employees, it should do so with legitimate support, not on the strength of three votes from a bargaining unit of 200.

That’s not asking too much. It should be the minimum standard for any organization claiming to represent working Floridians.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearEducation and made available via RealClearWire.

​Florida, Teachers unions, Fea, National education association, Democrats, Worker representation, Opinion & analysis, Collective bargaining, Public employee unions, Public schools, Anastasios kamoutsas, Families, Students, Accountability 

Your name is worth more than you think. Not to you, necessarily. But to a stranger sitting in Pyongyang, your name, your Social Security number, and your work history are worth a steady paycheck, a remote developer job, and a small contribution to a nuclear weapons program. Sleep well.

A Ukrainian man named Oleksandr Didenko just received five years in federal prison for running a website that sold stolen American identities to overseas workers — many of them North Korean — who used those identities to get hired at U.S. companies. Real jobs. Real salaries. Real access to corporate systems. All under names belonging to real Americans who had absolutely no idea any of it was happening.

The FTC receives well over 1 million identity theft reports each year, roughly one every 30 seconds.

Didenko’s site, called Upworksell, functioned like a marketplace. Need a convincing American identity to land a software engineering role? Browse the catalog. Over 870 stolen identities moved through that platform before the FBI shut it down in 2024. The North Koreans who bought or rented these identities then logged in remotely, did the work, collected the money, and sent the earnings back to a government that the entire world has financially isolated for very good reason.

The logistics were admirable, in a deeply unsettling way. Because the workers needed to appear physically present in the United States, Didenko paid ordinary Americans to host laptops in their homes across the country — from California to Tennessee to Virginia. Rooms filled with open laptops, each one a portal for a foreign worker pretending to be your neighbor. These are called laptop farms, a name that sounds like bad agricultural policy but describes something far more sinister and considerably more widespread.

This story stretches well beyond one man and one website. This was no isolated incident, but a single node in a vast and ongoing operation that’s a triple threat to corporate and government security teams. First, these workers violate American sanctions just by being employed. Second, while inside a company’s systems, they steal sensitive data. Third, they later use that stolen data to extort the very companies that unknowingly hired them. You get exploited three times, and you only find out after the fact, if you find out at all.

RELATED: Spam texts are surging. Here’s how to stop them on your phone.

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Identity theft in America is not new. It is, in fact, frighteningly common. The Federal Trade Commission receives well over 1 million identity theft reports each year. That is roughly one report every 30 seconds, around the clock, every day of the year. The true number is almost certainly higher, because most victims never report it at all. More than one in five Americans have experienced identity theft at some point in their lives, and in 2025 alone, losses tied to identity fraud topped $12 billion. A significant chunk of that traced back to stolen Social Security numbers — the same numbers sitting in Didenko’s catalog, waiting for a buyer. Most victims spend months trying to unpick the damage done — disputing fraudulent accounts, correcting credit reports, convincing institutions that they are, in fact, themselves. It is exhausting and humiliating and entirely avoidable, except that it isn’t, because the information was taken without any action on their part.

What the North Korean scheme adds to this picture is scale, sophistication, and a foreign government pulling the strings. These aren’t opportunistic criminals skimming card numbers at a gas station. This is a workforce, clocking in, clocking out, and committing federal crimes on behalf of a sovereign nation. Last year, CrowdStrike, one of the world’s leading cybersecurity firms, reported a significant increase in North Korean infiltration of Western companies, particularly in technical and software roles. The regime has also been known to impersonate recruiters and investors to trick people into handing over computer access. The con adapts constantly.

What stays constant is the raw material. Your identity. Your name. Your history. Your professional credibility, built over years, gone in an afternoon. North Korea is not alone. Russia and China have been playing the same game — longer, in some cases, and with considerable expertise.

The uncomfortable truth is that the systems built to verify who people are — employment checks, identity verification platforms, hiring pipelines — were designed for a different threat. They are nowhere near equipped for this one. Companies hire remote developers every day without meeting them in person, without ever confirming that the face on a video call matches the name on the resume. That gap is glaring, well documented, and largely unaddressed. For operations like Didenko’s, it’s also the entire business model.

Didenko will serve his five years. But this is whack-a-mole on steroids. Somewhere, another version of this operation is already running. New identities, new platforms, new rooms full of humming laptops and methodical keystrokes. Your name is out there. Quite possibly already for sale. Someone, somewhere, is deciding whether it’s worth buying.

​Tech, Crime 

At this year’s World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, artificial intelligence dominated the conversation. And according to Justin Haskins, the global elite aren’t just discussing innovation — they’re focused on shaping AI with what he calls a “Davos core” before it becomes too powerful to control.

“I think the most important thing that came out of Davos is the importance of artificial intelligence. In panel after panel after panel, what are the elites talking about? What are they most concerned about? It’s clearly artificial intelligence,” Haskins tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.”

“What they want to do is make sure that AI is designed with their values, so that as the world continues to adopt artificial intelligence over a long period of time and AI becomes more influential and powerful in our world, it’s with a Davos core, a Davos infrastructure,” he explains.

And while the artificial intelligence that we have now is concerning, the next stage of artificial intelligence is what Haskins finds even more concerning.

“Artificial general intelligence is the next stage of development, where AI becomes basically as smart as a human being,” Haskins says.

“And then once you hit that level, very shortly after that, most AI experts believe, you get artificial superintelligence — ASI — where now it is far more powerful than people. And at that point, it’s so powerful we can’t really control it or even fully know what it’s doing,” he continues.

Haskins explains there was also an entire panel at Davos dedicated to artificial intelligence and how to make sure AI is “sustainable and that it’s essentially woke” when it becomes more intelligent than humans.

And too many people are willing to use AI to write simple things like emails, and lawmakers are using it to help them make decisions — which Haskins finds the most terrifying about what AI means for the future.

“Lawmakers tell me — it’s very whispered and quiet. They don’t want people to know. But they use AI to help them make decisions all the time. Not just writing, but actually to help them, sort of tell them what to do because they’re not sure about an important thing,” Haskins explains.

“I hate that,” Stuckey interjects, shocked. “That’s even worse than giving them your brain. That’s giving them your conscience.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video, Upload, Video phone, Camera phone, Sharing, Free, Youtube.com, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Davos, New world order, Artificial intelligence, Global elites, Woke ideology 

Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the biblical spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” recently received a deeply disturbing email from one of his listeners.

In the message, the man, now grown, reflects on a bone-chilling experience he had as an adolescent at a church youth camp. On the first night in his cabin, two fellow campers convinced him to play the “Bloody Mary” game — a children’s urban legend ritual where you stand in a darkened bathroom, face a mirror, and chant “bloody Mary” three times to supposedly summon a vengeful ghostly woman.

What he saw in the mirror haunts him to this day.

“After the second statement of bloody Mary, I chickened out. I stepped away from the mirror,” the email reads.

But one of the other campers, known as “Tim,” then attempted to grab him to force him to stay. As he reached out, Tim caught a glimpse of another mirror outside the bathroom where the trio were playing the game.

“He screamed in terror as we all dropped to the floor. Tim described a dark shadow in the shape of a person walking. The mirror was situated in a way that the reflection of anyone in the room would have been from the waist up. But Tim’s description was that of a full head-to-foot body walking and actually growing larger as if it were coming from a distance inside the mirror toward our room,” the writer continues, adding that he’s “never seen anyone as genuinely terrified as Tim.”

Right after this climactic moment, a youth pastor, making his evening rounds, knocked on the door to check on the campers. The boys told him about their horrifying experience, and he warned them: “Urban legends like these are not something to play around with. … These are often used by demons … as invitations to come in.”

“The youth pastor is correct,” says Rick.

“Playing around with some of this stuff may seem so innocent, just like this 6-7 thing,” but urban legends and viral internet memes are often darker than people realize, he warns.

He compares brushing off seeming trivialities like Bloody Mary games and the 6-7 slang phrase to parents shrugging their shoulders as their kid plays along the side of a busy road or messes around with knives or matches.

“These kinds of things we would never do, but sometimes when it comes to entertainment and the culture, it’s like we won’t take the same attitude,” he says.

“If we truly believe what the Bible says and that the spiritual realm is real and that we have a devil and we have Satan, the fallen angel Lucifer that is extremely powerful … and then the demons, which also operate with him … then why do we pretend that that is not dangerous?” he asks.

To hear more of Rick’s spiritual analysis and learn more about the dark trends our youth are entangled in, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Strange encounters, Blazetv, Blaze media, Rick burgess, Rick burgess strange encounters, Spiritual warfare, Bloody mary, 6 7, 6 7 trend 

The latest joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran have been met in America with bipartisan praise and condemnation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of America’s most vociferous advocates for regime change in Iran, rushed to celebrate the “historic operation,” noting that he is “in awe of President Trump’s determination to be a man of peace but at the end of the day, evil’s worst nightmare.”

‘This is not “America First.”‘

Graham wrote in one of several emotion-laden commentaries, “My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us.”

Graham was hardly alone in his celebration of the regime-change strikes on the Shiite nation.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) provided a laundry list of reasons why this is a “vital mission of vengeance, and justice, and safety,” noting, “Iran has waged war against the U.S. for 47 years: the hostage crisis, the Beirut Marine barracks, Khobar Towers, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed or maimed thousands of American soldiers, the attempted assassination of President Trump.”

RELATED: World leaders respond to regime-change strikes on Iran: ‘Peacekeeper is at it again’

Photo by Mahsa/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

“The butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs,” added Cotton, who signaled appreciation in a separate post for Trump’s speech.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee with Cotton, thanked Trump for his “strong leadership,” and characterized Operation Epic Fury as both a demonstration of “peace through strength” and “AMERICA FIRST.”

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joined Graham and the other Republicans in lavishing praise on President Donald Trump for attacking Iran, stating, “President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”

“God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,” continued the Democrat.

Several of Fetterman’s Democrat colleagues condemned the attacks and the president’s perceived circumvention of Congress, which retains the authority to declare war.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) claimed that “single-handedly starting another war with Iran is dangerous and illegal” and expressed doubt about whether “America first” meant another foreign entanglement.

Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) raised concerns about the constitutionality of the strikes, noting, “The Constitution is clear: the decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress, and launching large-scale military operations — particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States — raises serious legal and constitutional concerns.”

Warner demanded that the administration “come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war.”

While Congress was not formally briefed on the strikes, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with and briefed the Gang of Eight, which includes the Democrat and Republican leaders from both the Senate and the House.

A spokesperson for Johnson confirmed to NOTUS that Johnson was notified. Sources also told NOTUS that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) were notified along with Sen. Warner, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Republican Rep. Rick Crawford (Ark.).

RELATED: Iran sparks regional war after retaliating against US military assets over ‘massive’ US-Israel strike

Photo by Stringer/Getty Images

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — who recently filed a Senate resolution with Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) that would block a war against Iran unless approved by Congress — was less restrained than Warner in his criticism of the president.

Kaine accused Trump of waging an “illegal war,” called the strikes a “colossal mistake,” and implored his colleagues to “go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action” and vote on his war powers resolution.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a critic of the president who has similarly attempted to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran without congressional approval, referred to the attacks as “acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”

In a subsequent post on social media, Massie stated, “I am opposed to this War. This is not ‘America First.'”

“When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran,” continued Massie. “The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”

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​Foreign entangelement, Intervention, Regime change, Iran, Tehran, Thomas massie, Massie, Tim kaine, Democrat, Republican, Fetterman, Iranian, Strikes, Missile, Military, War, Donald trump, Politics