What's in a name? Are you who you say you are? Are you who you think you are?

(1) In the days when the chieftains ruled, there was a famine in the land; and a man of Bet Lechem Yehuda [there is a place called Bet Lechem in Judah - not the same place as the Bethlehem you might have heard about elsewhere!!], with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the country of Moav.

(20) “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot very bitter.

(2) The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion...

(5) “The name of the man was Elimelekh, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons Maḥlon and Kilyon, Ephratites of Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the fields of Moav, and were there” (Ruth 1:2). “The name of the man was Elimelekh” (Ruth 1:2). Rabbi Meir would expound names. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa would expound names. “The name of the man was Elimelekh,” as he would say: To me [elai], the kingdom [malkhut] will come. “And the name of his wife was Naomi,” as her actions were fine [na’im], and pleasant [ne’imim]. “And the names of his two sons Maḥlon and Kilyon” – Maḥlon, for they were eradicated [nimḥu] from the world; Kilyon, for they were eliminated [kalu] from the world.

And one of them says: Their given names were Joash and Saraph, and why were they called by the names Mahlon and Chilion? One was called Mahlon [maḥlon] because they made their bodies profane [ḥullin], and the other was called Chilion [khilyon] because they were liable to receive the punishment of destruction [kelaya] for their sins against God.

(4) They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, and they lived there about ten years.

(9) “They took for themselves Moavite wives: the name of one was Orpa, and the name of the second was Ruth; and they dwelled there approximately ten years” (Ruth 1:4). “They took for themselves Moavite wives.” ...“The name of one was Orpa,” because she turned her back [oref] to her mother-in-law. “And the name of the second was Ruth [Rut],” because she saw [ra’ata] truth in the words of her mother-in-law....

Why was she named Ruth, spelled reish, vav, tav? Because there descended from her David who sated, a word with the root reish, vav, heh, the Holy One, Blessed be He, with songs and praises.

(5) Boaz continued, “When you acquire the property from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you must also acquire the wife of the deceased, so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate.”

(1) Meanwhile, Boaz had gone to the gate and sat down there. And now the redeemer whom Boaz had mentioned passed by. He called, “Come over and sit down here, So-and-so!” And he came over and sat down.

(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of יהוה; no descendants of such, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of יהוה, (5) because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.—

For what reason did Saul say to Abner that he should inquire about David? As it is written: “And Saul clad David with his apparel [maddav]” (I Samuel 17:38), which indicates that the clothes were of David’s size [kemiddato]. And it is written with regard to Saul: “From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people” (I Samuel 9:2). Upon seeing that his clothes fit David, Saul began to fear that it might be David who was destined for the throne, and he therefore inquired into his background. At that point, Doeg the Edomite said to Saul: Before you inquire as to whether or not he is fit for kingship, inquire as to whether or not he is even fit to enter into the congregation. What is the reason for such doubts? It is that he descends from Ruth the Moabite, and Moabites are permanently barred from entering the congregation. Abner said to him: We already learned that there is no room for such concern. As the verse states: “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:4), teaching that an Ammonite man is barred from entering into the congregation, but not an Ammonite woman; and similarly, a Moabite man is barred from entering into the congregation, but not a Moabite woman.

(1) So-and-so. But his name was not written because he did not wish to redeem. (2) So-and-so. פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי is rendered [into Aramaic] in the Prophets as, “concealed and secret.” (3) So. פְּלֹנִי means] covered and concealed, [as in] the expression of, “If there be concealed יִפָּלֵא” and “Is there anything concealed הֲיִפָּלֵא from Adonoy?” (4) And so. אַלְמֹנִי means widowed, without a name. (Another version: [He is called] אַלְמֹנִי because he was widowed of the words of the Torah, for he should have expounded, “[only] an Ammonite [is forbidden in marriage to a Jewish woman], but not an Ammonitess [i.e., an Ammonite woman is not forbidden in marriage to a Jewish man]; a Mo’avite, but not a Mo’aviteess.” Yet he said, “for I would mar my own inheritance.”)

(1) Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a man of substance, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

(17) and the women neighbors gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi!” They named him Oved; he was the father of Yishai, father of David.

(25) Please, my lord, pay no attention to that wretched fellow Naval. For he is just what his name says: His name means ‘boor’ [a rough and bad-mannered person] and he is a boor.