Abba (given name)

Abba is a form of ab, meaning "father" in many Semitic languages. It is used as a given name, but was also used as a title or honorific for religious scholars or leaders. (The word abbot has the same root.)

Persons with the given name Abba, or who are known by that title

Jewish religious personalities

• Rabbi Abba (3rd-4th century), religious scholar
• Abba of Acre (3rd century), religious scholar
• Abba Arika (175–247), Babylonian religious scholar
• Abba bar Abba (2nd-3rd century), Babylonian religious scholar
• Abba bar Abina (3rd century), Palestinian religious scholar
• Abba bar Zabdai (3rd century), Palestinian religious scholar
• Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama (270–350), Babylonian religious scholar known in the Talmud as Rava
• Abba Mordechai Berman (1919–2005), Polish rabbi and religious scholar
• Abba Hilkiah (1st century), Hasidic sage
• Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963), U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader
• Abba Hoshaya of Turya (3rd century), pious wool-washer
• Abba Jose ben Hanan (1st century), sage and tanna
• Abba Judan (2nd century), philanthropist
• Abba Mari (13th-14th century), French rabbi
• Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli (c. 1194–1256), French scholar and translator of Arabic texts
• Abba Yudan (3rd century), Palestinian religious scholar
• Raba (Rabbah) Bar Jeremiah (also called "Abba"), Talmudist

Jimma rulers

• Abba Bok'a (died 1862), a ruler of the Kingdom of Jimma in what is today southwestern Ethiopia
• Abba Gomol, ruler of the Kingdom of Jimma 1862–78; son of Abba Bok'a
• Abba Jifar I (ruled 1830 - c. 1855), king of the Kingdom of Jimma
• Abba Jifar II (ruled 1878–1932), king of the Kingdom of Jimma
• Abba Jofir, Ethiopian aristocrat briefly (1932) king of the Kingdom of Jimma
• Abba Magal (c. 1800), Oromo leader, father of Abba Jifar I, founder of the Kingdom of Jimma

Others

• Abba (count) (734?–768), Frisian count
• Abba Thulle (fl.1783), ibedul of Koror
• Abba Ahimeir (1897–1962), Russian Jewish journalist, historian, and Zionist
• Abba Cohen (born 1955/1956), American Orthodox Jewish advocate
• Abba Eban (1915–2002), Israeli diplomat and politician, and President of the Weizmann Institute of Science
• Abba Gerasimus (5th century), Lycian Christian monk and abbot revered as a saint
• Abba Gindin (b. 1946), Finnish/Israeli ice hockey player
• Abba Habib (fl.1959), Nigerian politician
• Abbot "Abbie" Hoffman (1936–1989), American activist whose Hebrew name was Abba
• Abba Hushi (1898–1969), Israeli politician
• Abba Kovner (1918–1987), Lithuanian/Israeli Jewish poet, writer, and partisan leader
• Abba Kyari (1938–2020), Nigerian military officer, governor, and business leader
• Abba P. Lerner (1903–1982), American economist
• Abba Musa Rimi (b. 1940), Nigerian politician, governor of Kaduna State
• Abba Goold Woolson (1838–1921), American writer

See also

• Avva