Bartholomew - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 4 syll. bar-(t)ho-lo-mew, ba-rtholom-ew ] The boy name Bartholomew is pronounced BaaRTHAALahMYUW ^KEY. Bartholomew is of Aramaic origin and it is used mainly in English. Bartholomew's meaning is 'son of Talmai, son of the one who abounds in furrows'. Biblical name derived from bar which means 'son' ; bard which means 'beard' ; bercht which means 'shining, clear'. Bar Talmai (Aramaic), Bartholomaeus (Latin), and Bartholomaios (Old Greek) are old forms of the name. The first element could be 'bard' or 'bercht', but as the ultimate Aramaic name is most likely Bar Talmai, the first element is likely to be the Aramaic 'bar'. Talmai is a variant of Tolmai, meaning 'abounding in furrows'. Bartholomew was one of the apostles, mentioned in various gospels of the New Testament of the Bible; some believe that it was the nickname for the apostle Nathaniel. The name was first adopted by English speakers in the medieval period. More than 100 churches in England were dedicated to the saint then. In the 12th century, King Henry I's courtier Rahere founded St Bartholomew's Hospital after having a vision of the saint, and brought widespread attention to the name. The Irish name Partholón and its other variant spellings are sometimes taken as a form of Bartholomew; it was borne in Irish mythology by the first man to arrive in Ireland after the biblical flood.

Bartholomew is a widely used name; it has 47 variations that are used in both English and foreign languages. English variations of the name include Barthlomeo, Bartholome, and Bartome. Other English variants include the short forms Bart (also used in Dutch and ), Barth, Barty, Bat, and Tolly, and the pet form Thole.

Variations of Bartholomew used in foreign languages include Bairtliméad (Irish), Bartal (Hungarian), Bartalan (Hungarian), Barthélemy (French), Barthélémy (French), Bartho (Dutch), Bartholomaus (German), Bartholomäus (German), Bartholomeus (Dutch), Barthomieu (Proven�al), Bartlomiej (Polish), Bartolmeu (Portuguese), Bartolo (Italian), Bartolomäus (German), Bartolome (Spanish), Bartolomej (Czech and Slavic), Bartolomeo (Italian), Bartolomeu (Galician and Portuguese), Bartolomé (Spanish), Bartolommeo (Italian), Bartomeu (Catalan), Bartos (Hungarian), Bartosz (Polish), Bartó (Hungarian), Bertalan (Hungarian), Jernej (Slavic), Parthalán (Irish), Partholón (Irish), Partnán (Irish), Pàrlan (Scottish), Perttu (Finnish), Varfolomei (Russian), and Varfolomey (Russian). Specific foreign variants include the short forms Bartel (Dutch and German), Bartle (Irish), Bartley (Irish), Bàrtolo (Italian), and Meo (Italian).

Bartholomew is unusual as a baby name for boys. Its usage peaked modestly in 1903 with 0.007% of baby boys being named Bartholomew. It ranked at #788 then. The baby name has since experienced a drop in popularity, and is currently of only sporadic use. Among all boy names in its group, Bartholomew was nevertheless the most widely used in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Bartholomew include Barthélemy (French), Barthélémy (French), Barthlomeo (English), Bartholome (English), Bartolome (Spanish), Bartolomej (Czech and Slavic), Bartolomeu (Galician and Portuguese), Bartolomé (Spanish), Bartalan (Hungarian), Bartolomeo (Italian), and Bertalan (Hungarian).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Bartholomew: B as in "be (B.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; TH as in "theta (TH.EY.T.AH)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; Y as in "yield (Y.IY.L.D)" ; UW as in "two (T.UW)"

Popularity Trend
for Bartholomew
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Bartholomew
in 2007