🔼The name Lud: Summary
- Meaning
- Bending, Almond Tree, Twisted
- Productivity
- Etymology
- From the verb לוז (luz), to bend or turn aside.
- From the verb ילד (yalad), to beget.
🔼The name Lud in the Bible
The curious case of the disassociated mister Lud and the Ludim:
The only mister Lud mentioned in the Bible is a son of Shem, oldest son of Noah (Genesis 10:22) but the Ludim are descendants of Mizraim, son of Ham, the youngest son of Noah (Genesis 10:13). It may be that there once were two patriarchs named Lud and thus two peoples named Ludim, but that one people and the other patriarch vanished from the story.
It can also be that — as is attested by Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names — in the language where this name came from (Phoenician, says Jones) the 'd' and the 'z' were pretty much indistinguishable and the name is actually Luz, meaning Turn of Twist, and thus the word by which the crooked almond tree was known.
🔼Etymology of the name Lud
That's about as good as the explanations get. The word לוד (lwd) simply does not occur in Hebrew. BDB Theological Dictionary and NOBSE Study Bible Name List do not translate. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, slightly more daring, indeed derives לוד (Lud) from לוז (luz), a verb meaning to turn aside, depart:
לוז
The verb לוז (luz) means to turn aside of away. Noun לזות (lazut) means deviation or crookedness. Noun לוז (luz) describes almond wood.
To a Hebrew audience, perhaps the name Lud rang like it has something to do with the verb ילד (yalad), meaning to beget, bring forth:
ילד
The verb ילד (yalad) means to beget or bring forth — children by both biological parents but also citizens by "mother"-cities and "father"-kings and such — or to produce (things) or bring about (events).
Nouns ולד (walad) and ילד (yeled) mean (male) child; ילדה (yalda) means girl. Noun ילדות (yaldut) means childhood. Adjectives ילוד (yillod) and יליד (yalid) mean "born." Noun מולדת (moledet) means kindred. Plural noun תולדות (toledot) means descendants or offspring.
Perhaps not.
🔼Lud meaning
The name Lud is one of the very few names that have absolutely no meaning in Hebrew. Jones, taking this name to be the same as Luz, reads Bending. But curiously, in translating the name Luz Jones chooses to go with Almond Tree.
The name Lydia means From Lud, and the name Ahilud may mean Brother Of Lud. But perhaps Lud derives from ילד (yalad) and means something like Productivity or Emergence.