Name Bathshua
Gender Feminine
Usage Biblical, English (Puritan)
Scripts בַּתשֿׁוּעַ(Ancient Hebrew)
Other Forms FormsBath-shu'a, Bathsua, Batshua, Bathshira
Edit Status Status
Meaning & History
Means "daughter of salvation" or "daughter of prosperity" in Hebrew. The first element is Hebrew בַּת (bat) meaning "daughter"; the second element could be derived from the verb יָשַׁע (yasha') "to save, to deliver", which is related to the verb שוע (shawa') meaning "to cry out (for salvation)" and the nouns שוע (shua'), שוע (shoa') and שועה (shawa) all of which mean "a cry (for salvation)", or it could be derived from a noun שוע which has been interpreted as meaning "riches, wealth".According to George R. Stewart (1979): 'In the biblical text this name is sometimes only another form for Bathsheba, though at least once it is the name of another person. It occurs rarely among names in early New England. It may represent an attempt to provide a substitute for Bathsheba, without that name's evil suggestions. Bathshua, however, failed to become established.' A bearer of the variant Bathsua was the great 17th-century scholar Bathsua Makin.