Meaning & History
English form of the Greek name , derived from timao) meaning "to honour" and theos) meaning "god" [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] . Saint Timothy was a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys and was the recipient of two of Paul's epistles that appear in the New Testament. He was of both Jewish and Greek ancestry. According to tradition, he was martyred at Ephesus after protesting the worship of Artemis. As an English name, Timothy was not used until after the Protestant Reformation.
Related Names
Feminine FormTimotha (English)
Other Languages & CulturesTimoteus, Timotheos (Ancient Greek) Tsimafei (Belarusian) Timotheos (Biblical Greek) Timotheus (Biblical Latin) Timotei (Bulgarian) Tim (Danish) Tim, Timo, Timotheus (Dutch) Timo (Estonian) Timo (Finnish) Timothée, Timothé (French) Tim, Timo, Timotheus (German) Timoteo (Italian) Timofejs (Latvian) Timotej (Macedonian) Timoti (Māori) Tim (Norwegian) Tymoteusz, Tymek (Polish) Timoteo (Portuguese) Timotei (Romanian) Timofei, Timofey (Russian) Timotej (Slovak) Timotej, Tim (Slovene) Timoteo (Spanish) Tim (Swedish) Tymofii, Tymofiy (Ukrainian)
Popularity
People think this name is
classic mature formal upper class natural wholesome strong refined serious
Images
Icon depicting Saint TimothyIcon depicting Saint Timothy
Sources & References
- Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, available from https://search.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/browse.html?facet-nymRef=Τιμόθεος.
- Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, entry g5095, available from https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=g5095.
- Withycombe, Elizabeth Gidley. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford, 1945, page 124.
- Liddell, Scott and Jones. An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, entry tima/w, available from https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dtima%2Fw.
- Liddell, Scott and Jones. An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, entry qeo/s, available from https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dqeo%2Fs.
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Entry updated May 26, 2026