LEVI

Jaredite PN	1.	King (Ether 1:20–21; 10:14–15)
Biblical PN	2.	Son of JACOB (3 Nephi 24:3)

For the etymology see the standard biblical commentaries.

In view of the fact that he sees a trend in some Jaredite names to be related to the lion and leopard (SHIBLON/M, CORIANTUM, CORIANTOR, LIB, NIMRAH, NIMROD), Urrutia sees LEVI as possibly related to Hebrew lābīʾ, “lion,” where the b is pronunced v in modern Hebrew (NPSEHA, 150.0 [Aug. 1982]). This latter fact, in Tvedtnes’s view, mitigates against such a possibility, since it is more likely that Joseph Smith would have spelled or pronounced the name “LEVI” only if it corresponded to the biblical name.