Hanan

Hanan (meaning full of grace or merciful) is the name of several individuals in the Old Testament. The most significant include: a Benjaminite listed in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 8:23; one of David's thirty mighty warriors, the son of Maacah (1 Chr. 11:43); and Hanan the son of Igdaliah, a prophet whose sons maintained a chamber in the temple where Jeremiah brought the Rechabites to test their commitment to their ancestral vow of abstinence (Jer. 35:4). In the post-exilic period, several men named Hanan appear: as a Levite who helped Ezra explain the law (Neh. 8:7), as a temple servant whose descendants returned from exile (Ezra 2:46; Neh. 7:49), and as a signatory to Nehemiah's covenant renewal (Neh. 10:22, 26).

The frequency of the name reflects the popularity of names built on the Hebrew root hnn (grace, favor) in ancient Israel, a root that also underlies names like Hannah, Hananiah, Hanani, and the Greek form John (Johanan = Yahweh is gracious).