Hagar
Name Origin & Meaning
Possibly derived from the Hebrew 'hagar' (to flee, a stranger) or from an Egyptian root meaning 'to flee.' Both meanings fit her biography — an Egyptian slave who fled into the wilderness twice. Yet she is the only person in the entire Bible who gave God a personal name: 'El Roi,' the God who sees. Her name's meaning of exile is transformed into an encounter with the most personal God in Scripture.
First Biblical Appearance
“Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.”
Hagar's first mention, establishing her role in the household and the circumstances that will draw her into the covenant story.
Biblical Significance
Hagar was the Egyptian maidservant of Sarah who bore Abraham's firstborn son Ishmael. Cast out twice into the wilderness, she encountered the Angel of the LORD both times. In her second exile, when she wept believing her son was dying, God opened her eyes to see a well. She is the first woman in Scripture to receive a divine annunciation and to name God. Her son Ishmael became the ancestor of twelve princes and, in Islamic tradition, the forefather of the Arab peoples.
Notable Bearers
- Hagar mother of Ishmael
Personality & Character
Resurrection and abundance — the number of new beginnings after the seventh day of completion
Spiritual symbolism drawn from Scripture and tradition
Modern Variants
A Blessing for This Name
May you, like Hagar, discover that no wilderness is beyond the reach of El Roi — the God who sees. In every place of exile and every moment of despair, may a well of living water be opened before your eyes by the same God who heard the cry of a forgotten servant.