What’s in a Name? Were the Names of Biblical Characters their Birth Names?

Are the names of biblical characters, mainly kings, their birth names? This study will survey several cases in which the birth names are forgotten or intimated, such as Gideon, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Na‘aman, and Elijah. This study will offer the reasons behind the changes stemming from personal, social, health, political or religious motivations. This phenomenon, or custom, is still prevalent nowadays more than we expect or imagine. For example, because I was born in Nissan, the month of redemption, my Kabbalist father, Z”L, named me Geula, “Redemption.” This was his prayer during WW2. However, my sister who raised me rejected my birth-name and because she loved me, she named me Ahuva, “beloved.”