THE NAMES DANIEL, DANILO, AND DANIELA: A STRATIFIED MODEL OF ONOMASTIC TRANSMISSION FROM HEBREW TO EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

This study presents a comprehensive philological, onomastic, and historical-linguistic analysis of the personal names Daniel, Danilo, and Daniela within the framework of a model of stratified onomastic transmission. The research traces the origin of these names from their Biblical Hebrew form דָּנִיֵּאל (Dāniyyēl), with a detailed examination of its internal morphological structure (dān + -ī + ʾēl) and its theophoric meaning “God is my judge.” Particular attention is devoted to the pathways of transmission through the Greek Septuagint (Δανιήλ) and the Latin Vulgate (Daniel), as critical stages in the adaptation of the name into Indo-European linguistic systems.

The study integrates classical scholarship (Noth, Stamm, BDB, Strong) with contemporary research (1990–2026) and proposes a stratified analytical model that distinguishes between etymological origin, phonological adaptation, morphological integration, and semantic continuity. The central thesis of the study is that, despite systematic phonetic and structural transformations across different languages, the core semantic content of the name remains unchanged.

Particular emphasis is placed on Slavic developments, especially the form Danilo, which is interpreted not as a direct continuation of the Hebrew original, but as a secondary Slavic derivation from the base Daniel, shaped in accordance with local morphological patterns (cf. Mihailo, Gavrilo). Feminine forms such as Daniela are also analyzed as later Indo-European derivations.

Through comparative and quantitative analysis, the study demonstrates that the name Daniel represents a paradigmatic case of a semantically stable yet formally adaptive theophoric name. The findings contribute to broader discussions in Biblical onomastics, historical linguistics, and cultural transmission, introducing the concept of stratified onomastic continuity as a methodological framework applicable to other Biblical names.

KEYWORDS

Daniel; Danilo; Daniela; Biblical names; Hebrew onomastics; theophoric names; Septuagint; Vulgate; Indo-European languages; semantic stability; onomastic transmission