Hodiyah is a Hebrew given-name spelling with two plausible readings. Biblical הוֹדִיָּה (Hodiyyah, conventionally Hodiah) is analysed by the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon as “my splendour is Yah.” Modern Hebrew הוֹדָיָה (Hodaya) is a feminine noun meaning “thanksgiving” or “prayer of thanks” and is also used as a girl’s name.
Without vowel points, both are written הודיה. The Latin spelling Hodiyah alone therefore cannot show which Hebrew form, pronunciation, meaning, or gender a particular bearer uses.
Biblical Hodiah: “My Splendour Is Yah”
Brown–Driver–Briggs treats biblical הוֹדִיָּה as a masculine personal name and glosses it “my splendour is Yah.” The first element is הוֹד (hod), for which the same lexicon gives the range “splendour, majesty, vigour.” Yah is the divine-name element. This makes Hodiah a theophoric name—one whose formation includes a reference to a deity.
The possessive in the lexicon’s analysis matters: “my splendour is Yah” is more exact than the common paraphrases “splendour of God” or “majesty of Yah.” “Thanksgiving” belongs to the modern Hodaya reading discussed below, not to this lexical analysis. See the transcribed Brown–Driver–Briggs entries for @@0@@ and @@1@@.
An etymology explains how a name is formed; it does not reveal why every family chose it. Nor does a theophoric name establish a modern bearer’s beliefs or ancestry.
Bearers in the Hebrew Bible
The biblical text applies the name to more than one person:
- Nehemiah 8:7 places Hodiah among the Levites who help the assembled people understand the Torah.
- Nehemiah 9:5 names a Hodiah among the Levites who call the assembly to bless God. Brown–Driver–Briggs groups this reference with the Levite in Nehemiah 8:7.
- Nehemiah’s covenant list names Hodiah three times: in two Levitical positions and once among the chiefs of the people. These are Nehemiah 10:11, 10:14, and 10:19 in the Jewish Publication Society numbering displayed by Mechon-Mamre, corresponding to 10:10, 10:13, and 10:18 in many Christian editions.
These notices do not support one continuous biography for every occurrence. The lexicon distinguishes one Levite in Nehemiah 8:7, 9:5, and 10:11, another at 10:14, and a chief at 10:19. The Society for Old Testament Study places chapters 8–10 within the book’s restoration narrative after the Babylonian exile and also notes the complicated literary development of Ezra–Nehemiah. It is safest to call these attestations in the biblical text, not precisely dated civil records or evidence of descent.
The difficult wording of 1 Chronicles 4:19
1 Chronicles 4:19 is not a secure example of a biblical woman named Hodiah. The 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation reads “the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham,” making Hodiah the husband; Brown–Driver–Briggs likewise catalogs this person as a man of Judah. Strong’s Concordance, by contrast, classifies the form at this verse as feminine and glosses it “a Jewess.” Because the compressed genealogy has produced conflicting analyses, the verse should not be used by itself to assign gender or construct a family tree.
Modern Hodaya: “Thanksgiving”
Modern Hebrew הוֹדָיָה is a feminine noun formed from the root י־ד־ה. The Pealim morphology dictionary gives the pronunciation hodaya and the meanings “thanksgiving” and “prayer of thanks.” As a personal name, the unpointed spelling is again הודיה.
Contemporary feminine use is documented in Israel’s official first-name data. In the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics report for children born in 2024, הודיה ranks fifth among Jewish girls whose two parents were born outside Israel, with 61 children in that subgroup. This is not a nationwide rank for the name. The report also says that its registry data concern the first given name, normally omit vowel points, and combine identically written forms when the lack of vowel points prevents a distinction.
The statistic therefore establishes current use of הודיה as a girls’ given name, but it does not disclose those families’ intended meaning, pronunciation, or Latin-letter spelling. Hodaya is the clearest romanization when the modern ho-da-YA reading is known; an individual may nevertheless use Hodiyah or another legal spelling.
Spelling and Identification
The original script and the bearer’s own pronunciation are more informative than an English spelling:
הוֹדִיָּהpoints to biblical Hodiah, Hodijah, or Hodi-yah and the meaning “my splendour is Yah.”הוֹדָיָהpoints to modern Hodaya and the noun “thanksgiving.”- Unpointed
הודיהremains ambiguous without context.
English Bible traditions account for some variation. The 1917 Jewish Publication Society text uses Hodiah, while the King James Version of Nehemiah 8:7 uses Hodijah for the same pointed Hebrew name. These spellings are translation conventions, not evidence for different lineages.
Do not automatically merge the name with Hodaviah. That separate biblical form is written @@0@@, with an additional consonantal element, even though English spellings can look similar. Likewise, a database surname field is not proof that Hodiyah is hereditary. The evidence above concerns personal names; any family-name use must be demonstrated through records across generations, and no shared spelling proves descent from a biblical bearer.
References
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, @@2@@, Clarendon Press, 1906; entries
הוֹד, “splendour, majesty, vigour,” andהוֹדִיָּה, “my splendour is Yah.” The relevant entries are also available as searchable transcriptions. - Mechon-Mamre, Hebrew Bible in Hebrew and English: 1 Chronicles 4 and Nehemiah 8, 9, and 10; Masoretic Hebrew with the 1917 Jewish Publication Society English translation.
- Society for Old Testament Study, “Nehemiah,” SOTS Wiki; discussion of content, literary development, and historical background.
- Pealim, “Inflection of @@0@@,” modern Hebrew morphology, pronunciation, and meaning table.
- Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, @@0@@, release 391/2025, 8 December 2025; methodology on pp. 1–2 and table E on p. 7.