SAM

Lehite PN

1.

Son of Lehi I, brother of Nephi I, ca. 600 BC (1 Nephi 2:5; Alma 3:6)

No etymology is suggested.

None of the suggestions for this name seem adequate. As early as Reynolds and Sjodahl (1:16&26; and Reynolds, Story of the Book of Mormon, p. 298) the suggestion is that it is Egyptian, including the title s3m, “uniter” (LID, 30&45). Others have referred to the Arabic form, Sam, of the name for KJV Shem (ABM, 59–60). On the other hand, it is unlikely that the Lehites would have used the Arabic form of the name when the Hebrew form of the name is attested in the Book of Mormon (JAT), though only at the close of the Lehite period. The name cannot be related to the English Sam, which is a shortened form of Samuel, because the Lehites would not have shortened the Hebrew form of the name, šemūʾēl, by dropping the phonemic element ū.

Minaean ESA PN ʿmsmy and smc (JAT) cannot be appealed to for the same reason that Sam cannot come from Samuel.

Bibliography

• Ariel L. Crowley About the Book of Mormon. Idaho City, ID: Deseret News, 1961.