Most Biblical names have versions in every European language,
because western Christian nations share some of their cultural
roots with Jews. Biblical names came into European languages
from Hebrew via Greek and Latin. If the English equivalent name
was considered "fashionable" at that time, that name was most
often the one adopted by an immigrant. However, there were no
rules forcing an immigrant to adopt the language-equivalent name
as their new name. In my study of immigrant name adaptations,
77% of those with the Hebrew name 'Avraham' took the English
name 'Abe' or 'Abraham'; 94% of those named 'Binyamin' became
'Ben' or 'Benjamin'; 94% of 'David's became 'David'. These are
all the English language equivalent names. But the English
equivalent name was not always the name chosen. For example,
despite the fact that the English-language version of the Hebrew
name 'Moshe' is Moses, only 4% of those named 'Moshe' became
'Moses' — 78% became 'Morris'. None of those named 'Yechezkel'
became 'Ezekiel'; none of th