![]() St. Simon the Zealot, by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1611), from his Twelve Apostles series at the Museo del Prado, Madrid | |
Gender | Male |
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Name day | January 5 (Hungary) May 9 (Eastern Orthodoxy) October 28 (France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain) |
Origin | |
Word/name | The Bible |
Meaning | "listen" |
Popularity | see popular names |
Simon is a given name, from Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן Šimʻôn, meaning "listen" or "hearing".[1] It is also a classical Greek name, deriving from an adjective meaning "flat-nosed".[2]: 232 [3] In the first century AD, Simon was the most popular male name for Jews in Roman Judea.[4]
The Hebrew name is Hellenised as Symeon (Greek: Συμεών) in the Septuagint, and in the New Testament as both Symeon[5] and, according to most authorities, Simon. Some commentators on the New Testament say that it could be a Hellenised form of the Hebrew Shim'on, but if not then it indicates that Peter came from a "Hellenistic background"; this was not unheard of in this era, as contemporary Jews such as Andrew the Apostle (Simon's brother) sometimes bore originally Greek names.[6]: 58
Simon is one Latinised version of the name, the others being Simeon or Symeon. This practice carried over into English: in the King James Version, the name Simeon Niger is spelt Simeon (Acts 13:1) as is Simeon (Gospel of Luke) (Luke 2:25), while Peter is called Simon (John 1:44).