Uriah
A Hebrew name that reads "Yahweh is my light". In Poland it barely registers: only nine men carry it, and the records show no newborns taking it up.
Uriah Pronunciation
Uriah is pronounced OOR-yahkh (/ˈurjax/).
What Uriah means
Where Uriah comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Uriah comes from Hebrew, built from two pieces: uri, "my light," and yah, a short form of the divine name. Together they say that Yahweh is my light. The name belongs to the Hebrew Bible before it belongs to anyone else, where Uriah the Hittite serves as a soldier under King David and dies in battle.
The English association arrived much later. Charles Dickens gave the name to Uriah Heep in David Copperfield, published in 1850, a clerk who bows and schemes. That character fixed the name in English ears for a long stretch, which is why it stayed rare on christening records.
The meaning underneath never changed. Yahweh is my light. A Polish child called Uriah today would find the name absent from the parish calendar, so there is no fixed imieniny to mark. On a school register it stands out among the Kacpers and Jakubs. What the register cannot show is the old Hebrew reading still sitting inside the name: my light is God.
How many people are named Uriah
1 in 2371799 men in Poland is named Uriah. 9 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #18065 among male names.