Barak (name)


Barak, also spelled Baraq, is a given name of Semitic origin. As a Hebrew name, from the root B-R-Q, it means "lightning" and it appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name of an Ancient Israelite general Barak.

Etymology

The Semitic root :wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/bariq-|B-R-Q has the meaning "to shine"; "lightning".
The biblical name ברק Bārāq is given after Barak, a military commander who appears in the Book of Judges.
The Arabic cognate is بَرْق barq. The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is derived from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic Mi'raj tradition.
Although the given name is mostly Jewish and found predominantly in Israel, it has occasionally been used by Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the early modern period, when given names from the Hebrew Bible were in fashion, as in the name of Barak Longmate, an 18th-century English genealogist.

Use as a given name