The apostles get the credit, but they didn’t carry the early church alone. The first generation of Christians included a deacon stoned to death for preaching, a physician who wrote roughly a quarter of the New Testament, a young pastor Paul called a son in the faith, and three missionary companions who walked with Paul through riots, shipwrecks, and prisons. Their names are the names of the church behind the apostles: the figures whose work was essential without being foundational. Naming a child for one of them is picking a name with definite biblical provenance and a story that is easy to know without being over-rehearsed. These six names close the cluster of biblical boy name articles, covering the figures around the Twelve who built the first churches and wrote much of what those churches still read.
Stephen (Greek Stephanos, “crown” or “wreath,” the same word used for the laurel given to victors in Greek athletic games). One of the seven deacons appointed in Acts 6 to oversee the distribution of food to the Greek-speaking widows in the early Jerusalem church. His speech in Acts 7, retelling Israel’s history from Abraham through Solomon as a long story of rejecting God’s messengers, is the longest single discourse in the book of Acts. Closed his speech with a vision of Christ standing at the right hand of God, then was stoned outside Jerusalem. Saul of Tarsus, the future apostle Paul, held the cloaks of those who threw the stones (Acts 7:58), the first appearance of Paul in the New Testament narrative. Ranked #383 in 2025, down from a 1949 peak of #19.
Barnabas (Aramaic, given by the apostles to a Cypriot Levite named Joseph; Acts 4:36 explains the name inline as “son of encouragement”). Sold his property to support the early Jerusalem church and laid the proceeds at the apostles’ feet. Was the one Christian leader willing to vouch for the recently converted Saul of Tarsus when others in Jerusalem still feared him as a former persecutor (Acts 9:27). Companion of Paul on the first missionary journey through Cyprus and southern Asia Minor. Later split with Paul over whether to bring his cousin John Mark on the second journey, choosing Mark and parting from Paul (Acts 15:36-40), one of the rare recorded conflicts among the early Christian leaders. Outside the SSA Top 1000 in 2025 (rank #3669), with sparse historical US use.
Mark (Latin Marcus, “of Mars” or “warlike”; also called John Mark in Acts to distinguish him from other Marks in the early church). Author of the second Gospel, traditionally the shortest and earliest of the four. Companion of Peter, who calls Mark a son in 1 Peter 5:13, a relationship that has shaped early Christian tradition crediting Peter as the primary source behind Mark’s Gospel. Deserted Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:13), which later caused the Paul-Barnabas split. Eventually reconciled with Paul, who in 2 Timothy 4:11 asked for Mark to be brought to him because he was useful in ministry. Ranked #245 in 2025, down from a 1959 peak of #6.
Silas (Greek Silas, traditionally connected with the Aramaic root behind Saul, “asked for”; also appears in Paul’s letters as Silvanus, the Latin form). Paul’s chief companion on the second missionary journey through Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece. Imprisoned with Paul at Philippi after they exorcised a slave girl whose fortune-telling was making money for her owners (Acts 16:16-18). Sang hymns in the stocks at midnight; an earthquake opened the prison doors; the jailer was converted along with his household. Also named with Paul as co-author of 1 and 2 Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:1). Hit #71 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak, and rising over the past five years.
Luke (Greek Loukas, possibly a shortened form of Latin Lucius meaning “light”). The physician who became Paul’s traveling companion through the later missionary journeys, present at the shipwreck off Malta (Acts 27-28). Author of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, which together comprise roughly a quarter of the New Testament by volume and form the most historically detailed narrative arc in the canon. Paul calls him “the beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14. The only Gospel writer to anchor events by Roman political markers like the reign of Tiberius (Luke 3:1), and traditionally the only non-Jewish author of any New Testament book. Ranked #33 in 2025, near its 2014 peak of #28.
Timothy (Greek Timotheos, “honoring God,” from tim- meaning “honor” and theos meaning “God”). Paul’s young protégé from Lystra, son of a Greek father and a Jewish-Christian mother named Eunice, with a grandmother Lois remembered for her faith (2 Timothy 1:5). Circumcised by Paul before the second missionary journey (Acts 16:3), a pragmatic concession to enable ministry to Jewish audiences even though Paul argued strongly against circumcision as a theological requirement in his letter to the Galatians. Two Pauline epistles are addressed to Timothy with pastoral instruction. Paul addresses him as a son in the faith in 1 Timothy 1:2, one of the closest discipling relationships in the New Testament. Ranked #203 in 2025, down from a 1960 peak of #11.
This article closes the cluster of biblical boy name articles in Names, Explained. The earlier installments cover the Old Testament patriarchs, the Old Testament prophets, the Old Testament kings and judges, and the New Testament apostles. For the complete list of every biblical boy name with a dedicated page on this site, see New Testament names or Biblical boy names.
Names of the church behind the apostles
These are the figures whose names usually don’t come up first when people are searching for a biblical boy name. They show up in the second pass, when someone reads through Acts and notices that the foundation of the church was wider than the Twelve. A child named Stephen carries the name of the first Christian to die for the faith. A child named Luke carries the name of the man who wrote roughly a quarter of the New Testament. A child named Timothy carries the name of one of the New Testament’s closest discipling relationships.
These names are less common than the apostle names but they are not less serious. They are the names of the men who took what they had been given and ran with it, before any of them knew whether the message they were carrying would survive a single generation. Two thousand years later, the names did.
They are the names of the men who took what they had been given and ran with it.
Sources
- Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. University of Chicago Press.
- Hanks, Hardcastle, and Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press.
- Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/