text: There is, ironically, a bit of confusion about this word.\n\nThe key is found, in fact, in THREE languages and one story.  Several have caught two pieces of this; none has put it together.\n\n1. This precise form "Babel" is simply a transliteration of the HEBRW word for the city of Babylon.  \n\nIn fact, this word is rendered AS "Babylon" in EVERY biblical use EXCEPT for the story of "the tower of Babel" in Genesis 11.    In other words, the expected translation in that story is actuaolly "tower of Babylon", but for other reasons (noted below) our ENGLISH translations have chosen to render it differently in just this one instance.\n\n2. The STORY of the tower of Babylon ("Babel") is about God's CONFUSING the languages of the people of the earth (esp. of Mesopotamia) to prevent them from carrying out their goal to "make a name for themselves..."   It's debated whether this biblical story was meant to be a literal, complete story of 'where different languages came from' or simply an illustration of how people became divided and how, by God's oversight, these divisions thwarted their efforts to rebel against him and go their own way.  (In particular, the story may have been a mocking retelling of the various attempts of the Mesopotamians to build empires and how these faltered by human division, including the different languages of the peoples of the empire.)\n\nAt any rate, as a result of this story, the word "Babel" in English has come to refer more generally to 'confusion of tongues' and speech that others cannot comprehend.    The movie that has just come out is based on this story and meaning of the word  (as is clear from the movie's trailer which specifically quotes from the story of Genesis 11).\n\n3. The Hebrew form of the name "Babel" is borrowed from the name the city was called by in AKKADIAN (the Semitic language of Babylon itself) - "Babilu".   The Akkadians explained the name as meaning "gate [bab] of God [ilu].\n\nBut in the story of Genesis 11 the writer is MOCKING these claims.  In fact, the story is FILLED with Hebrew wordplays, making fun of what the people were attempting to do.    It all culminates in a new, mocking explanation of the name of the city itself as related to the HEBREW veb "balal" which means "to confuse".   Of course, the writer knew this wasn't the historical reason for the name.  The whole point was to MOCK.   One might render the key line something like "so the city is appropriately called 'Confusion'!"\n\n4. One more piece --most often missed.   The decision of English translators to render Hebrew "Babel" as such in JUST this one instance is no doubt based on the ENGLISH word "babble" (that is, incoherent speech or baby talk), a word attested in English as early as the 13th century [Oxford English Dictionary].    \n\nSince English already had this word, the reason for the decision should be obvious.  It fits so very perfectly with the point of the story!!    To the people in the story, who could not undertand each other's speech, the foreign languages of their neighbors DID sound preciesely like "babble"!    So this was just a very happy, convenient co-incidence... not anything in the Hebrew or Akkadian languages.  (It's actually rather in the spirit of the Hebrew writer playing on a word in his own language to make the main joke in the story.)