Ismael

Ismael is the Spanish equivalent of the Hebrew name Yishma'el (Ishmael) meaning ‘God will hear’. In the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, Ishmael was the son of Abraham and half-brother to Isaac. His story is told in Genesis chapter 16. Abraham and his wife Sarah (Sarai) cannot conceive a child, so Sarah gives her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham. He agrees to this not atypical biblical marital arrangement (an ancient version of “Sister Wives”). Once Hagar is successful at conceiving Abraham’s child, she looks upon her mistress Sarah with contempt (we can’t help picturing Hagar doing a little jig in front of Sarah singing “I AM pregnant and YOOOU are not. HA-ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!”). Of course Sarah is furious and so treats Hagar harshly, causing the handmaiden to flee. An angel of God appears before Hagar instructing her to return and submit to Sarah. The angel says: “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction.” And so his name was called Ishmael, born to Abraham when he was 86 years old! Later on, old Sarah herself miraculously gets pregnant and bears Isaac. Armed with a son of her own, Sarah now wants Hagar and Ishmael out of the picture to ensure Isaac gets the inheritance and is recognized as the next patriarch (God has already decided that Isaac would be the instrument of His covenant anyway). Banished and wandering the wilderness with his mom, Ishmael almost dies from thirst. God comes to the rescue, saves Ishmael from near death, and promises to make him a “great nation” unto himself (the Ishmaelites). According to tradition, Ishmael is the forefather of the Arab peoples, and Isaac is the forefather of the Jewish tribes. And so goes the story of Ishmael. Ishmael has never been a particularly popular name within English-speaking nations, but Ismael is surprisingly popular among Spaniards and Catalonians.