Baby name meanings, where did they start?

I love the name Jacob but it has a terrible meaning.. It means supplanter .. Just wondering where all these name meanings started, how far back do they go. Why does jacob mean supplanter?|||JACOB





One of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. The brother of Esau, he was known also as Israel %26lt;Gen. 32:28%26gt;.


Jacob was born in answer to his father's prayer %26lt;Gen. 25:21%26gt;, but he became the favorite son of his mother %26lt;25:28%26gt;. He was nicknamed Jacob because, at the birth of the twins, "his hand took hold of Esau's heel" %26lt;25:26%26gt;. According to the accounts in Genesis, Jacob continued to "take hold of" the possessions of others-- his brother's birthright %26lt;25:29-34%26gt;, his father's blessing %26lt;27:1-29%26gt;, and his father-in-law's flocks and herds %26lt;30:25-43; 31:1%26gt;.





And so Jacob means "supplanter" as well.





As far as names go in general, of course we need a way to distinguish ourselves from each other. So words were used for names that described the child, or at least the parents' hopes for the child--whether the child would be large, small, peaceful, war-like, etc. People from different countries used words from their own languages, and so different names, pronunciations, etc. were created.|||Well Jacob was a man in the Old Testament of the Bible, so that one goes back to pretty much the beginning of time. The definition I have found for Jacob means "held by the heel". Not that that makes any more sense!:-) To me? It doesn't matter what a name means. If it sounds nice, who really cares?|||Jacob was a man in the Old Testament of the Bible I think......