Simeon

Simeon is a given name, from the Hebrew שמעון (Biblical Šimʿon, Tiberian Šimʿôn), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon.

Meaning

The name is derived from Simeon, son of Jacob and Leah, patriarch of the Tribe of Simeon. The text of Genesis (29:33) argues that the name of Simeon refers to Leah's belief that God had heard that she was hated by Jacob, in the sense of not being as favoured as Rachel.

כִּי־שָׁמַע יְהוָה כִּי־שְׂנוּאָה אָנֹכִי וַיִּתֶּן־לִי גַּם־אֶת־זֶה וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמֹו שִׁמְעֹון׃

"Because the LORD had heard that I was hated, he had therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon."

implying a derivation from the Hebrew term shama on, meaning "he has heard"; this is a similar etymology as the Torah gives for the theophoric name Ishmael ("God has heard"; Genesis 16:11), on the basis of which it has been argued that the tribe of Simeon may originally have been an Ishmaelite group (Cheyne and Black, Encyclopaedia Biblica). In classical rabbinical sources, the name is sometimes interpreted as meaning "he who listens [to the words of God]" (Genesis Rabbah 61:4), and at other times thought to derive from sham 'in, meaning "there is sin", which is argued to be a prophetic reference to Zimri's sexual miscegenation with a Midianite woman, a type of relationship which rabbinical sources regard as sinful (Jewish Encyclopedia).

List of persons with the given name Simeon

Before Christ

• Simeon (Hebrew Bible), one of Jacob's sons
• Tribe of Simeon, one of the twelve tribes of Israel
• Simon I (High Priest) (c. 300 BC), Jewish high priest, possibly identical with Simeon the Just
• Simon II (High Priest) (219–199 BC), Jewish high priest, possibly identical with Simeon the Just
• Simeon the Just (3rd century BC?) a Jewish High Priest, also called "Simeon the Righteous" (not the same as the New Testament figure, below)

Through 700 AD

• Simeon (Gospel of Luke), figure in the New Testament who blessed Jesus and his parents in the Jerusalem temple
• Simeon of Jerusalem, 2nd Bishop of Jerusalem, perhaps one of the Seventy Apostles sent out by Jesus
• Simeon Niger, person in the Book of Acts
• Shimon ben Gamliel, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in 50 AD
• Shimon ben Gamliel II, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in c. 118 AD
• Shimon bar Yochai, a rabbi of the Tannaim period, possibly the author of the Zohar
• Simeon Stylites (c. 388–459 AD), a Christian pillar-hermit from Sisan, Syria
• Simeon Stylites the Younger (521–597 AD), a hermit and pillar-hermit from Antioch
• Simeon Stylites III, a 5th-century (?) pillar-hermit
• Simeon was the name of one priest and one deacon martyred with Abda and Abdjesus
• Simeon the Holy Fool, Christian saint and hermit of the 6th century

From 701 AD to 1800 AD

• Simeon I of Bulgaria (866–927 AD), a Bulgarian tsar
• Symeon Metaphrastes (10th century?) was the most renowned of the Byzantine hagiographers
• Symeon the New Theologian: (949–1022 AD) Eastern Orthodox saint
• Simeon (abbot) (994–1094 AD), Abbot of Ely Cathedral
• Simeon Seth (fl. 1070 AD), Jewish Byzantine physician, writer, and grand chamberlain from Antioch
• Simeon of Mantua (10th century-1016 AD), an Armenian monk
• Saint Simeon, born Stefan Nemanja (1113–1199 AD), Serbian ruler and saint of the Serbian Orthodox Church
• Symeon of Durham (died after 1129 AD), English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory.
• Simeon of Moscow, a 14th-century Grand Prince of Moscow
• Simon of Trent, a 15th-century boy supposedly killed by Jews, and formerly a martyr of the Catholic Church
• Simeon Uroš, a 14th-century ruler of Epirus and Thessaly
• Patriarch Symeon I of Constantinople, or Symeon of Trebizond, reigned three times: 1466, 1471–1475 and 1482–1486
• Simeon Bekbulatovich, de jure Tsar of Russia (1575–1576) (Ivan the Terrible was the Tsar de facto)

Since 1800 AD

• Semyon Belits-Geiman (born 1945), former Soviet Olympic freestyle swimmer
• Semyon Budyonny (1883–1973), Soviet military commander
• Semyon Varlamov (born 1988), Russian ice hockey player
• Simeon Coxe (usually known only as Simeon), American musician, singer and synth player of Silver Apples
• Simeon V. Marcelo (born 1953), Filipino lawyer and former Ombudsman and Solicitor-General of the Philippines
• Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840), French mathematician
• Simeon Mangiuca (1831–1890), Austro-Hungarian Romanian folklorist
• Simeon Rice (born 1974), American football player (American football)
• Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (born 1937), Tsar of Bulgaria (1943–1946), prime minister of Bulgaria (2001–2005)
• Simeon S. Willis (1879–1965), American lawyer, judge, and politician from Kentucky