The Evolution of the Name Eliyahu → Elias → Elijah

The Hebrew name Eliyahu

The Hebrew name Eliyahu (ay-lee-yaw’-hoo) means “My God is Yahweh” and is spelled Aleph-Lamed-Yod-He-Vav.

The Greek name Elias

The transliteration of Eliyahu from Hebrew to Greek is straight forward.

• The Hebrew letter Aleph has a long “A” sound which corresponds with the Greek sound “HAY” which is the letter Eta with the rough breathing mark “`Η”.
• The Hebrew consonant Lamed, pronounced with a long E, has the sound “LEE” which corresponds to the exact same sound from the Greek letters “ΛΙ” (Lambda-Iota).
• The Hebrew letter Yod has a “YAW” sound which corresponds to the “AH” sound from the Greek letter “A” (Alpha).
• The Hebrew letters He-Vav, pronounced “HYOU” do not have any corresponding sound in Greek because male names are almost always closed out with a consonant, usually an S, or less frequently with an ‘N’ or ‘R’ sound.
• These steps produce the name “ELIAS” (ΗΛΙΑΣ) which is pronounced “HAY-LEE-AS.”