HELAMAN

HELAMAN

Lehite PN		1. Son of King Benjamin, ca. ___BC (Mosiah 1:2)
			2. Son of Alma II, prophet, military commander, ca. ___BC (Alma 31:7; Helaman 2:2)
			3. Son of Helaman No. 2, ca. 50–39 BC (Alma 63:11; 3 Nephi 1:2)

This name could be the name Helam plus the ending -ān. Normally, though, in Hebrew the affix ān becomes -ōn, with a few exceptions, such as qorbān and šulḥān, though it 
is not certain that the ān in these two cases is the common Semitic abstraction affix. 

There are several suggested etymologies from Semitic and Egyptian, several of which are promising. Hebrew ḥlm and hlm, plus the ending -ān (see the biblical PN Naaman), are 
the most likely (JH). Cf. the *Ugaritic PNs ḥal-la-ma-na and bn ḥlm (JH).  ḥlm, “to dream, to see a vision” would yield “Seer” or “Visionary.” hlmn, “hammer,” would mean 
“Hammer [of God].” ḥlmwn, “yoke,” would be “Yoke [of God].” Also possible would be a meaning taken from ḥyl, “soldier,” but then the ending “-aman” would remain 
unexplained.

Less likely are etymologies obtained from Egyptian theophoric names. Nevertheless, Nibley has suggested Egyptian ḥer-amon, “in the presence of [the god] Amon.” Cf. Egyptian 
PN ḥry.i.ḥr.imn. Nibley notes that Egyptian uses r in place of Semitic l when rendering Semitic names (LID 28, 31, ABM, 235), though here the name is going from Egyptian to 
Semitic and therefore this rule would not apply (JAT).

Cf. Book of Mormon Helam, Helem