- published: 26 Aug 2007
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Names of God, or Holy Names, describe a form of addressing God present in liturgy or prayer of various world religions. Prayer involving the Holy Name or the Name of God has become established as common spiritual practice in both Western and Eastern spiritual practices. A number of traditions have lists of many names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of the Supreme Being.
The English word "god" is used by multiple religions as a noun or name to refer to different deities.
Ancient cognate equivalents for the word "god" include proto-Semitic el, Hebrew elohim "God or/of gods", Arabic 'ilah "(a or the) god", and Biblical Aramaic 'Elaha "God". The personal or proper name for God in many of these languages may either be distinguished from such attributes, or homonymic. For example, in Judaism the Holy Name is sometimes related to the ancient Hebrew ehyeh, "I AM". In Hinduism the term Brahman or Parabrahman is often used, while in other cases the proper name for a deity is given special significance as a true name of God; or incorporated from earlier beliefs, as in the case of the Native American appellation Gitche Manitou.