Avital ( ''’Ăḇîṭāl'') is a Hebrew given name of

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

origin. Traditionally a female given name, its modern usage is

unisex Unisex is an adjective indicating something is not sex-specific, i.e. is suitable for any type of sex. The term can also mean gender-blindness or gender neutrality. The term 'unisex' was coined in the 1960s and was used fairly informally. The co ...

. Avital is also used as a

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

Etymology

"Abital" translates to ''dewy'' (as in,

morning dew "Morning Dew", also known as "(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew", is a Contemporary folk music, contemporary folk song by Canadian singer-songwriter Bonnie Dobson. The lyrics relate a fictional conversation in a post-nuclear holocaust world. Ori ...

) or ''my father is hedew'' (''Ab-i'' means "my father"; ''-i'' is possessive pronoun for "my"). The name refers to

dew Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation. As the exposed surface cools by thermal radiation, radiating its heat, atmospheric moisture condenses at a rate grea ...

, the phenomenon of water droplets that occur on exposed objects in the morning or evening due to

condensation Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor ...

William Dwight Whitney William Dwight Whitney (February 9, 1827June 7, 1894) was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer known for his work on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic philology as well as his influential view of language as a social institution. He was ...

's ''

Century Dictionary ''The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia'' is one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. It was compared favorably with the ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' and frequently consulted for more factual information than woul ...

'' of 1889 defines "avital" as "pertaining to a grandfather; ancestral", giving its root as the Latin ''avus,'' . It is used thus in 1889 by Hubert Lewis's ''The Ancient Laws of Wales''. Mt Avital from Mt Bental

Place name

The surname could potentially be a

place name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

for the Avital moshav in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, named in 1953. Alternatively, Mount Avital/Tall Abu an Nada (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: הר אביטל, ''Har Avital'',

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: تل أبو الندى, ''Tall Abu an Nada'') is a mountain that is part of a

dormant volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often ...

in the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

.
South Lebanon and Vicinity 1976
'
Golan Heights and vicinity 1994
' It does not appear to have any correlation with the Avital moshav, being over an hour's drive away.

Biblical character

The name was popularized by minor biblical character Abital, who is mentioned in the book of Samuel as one of King

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

's wives ( II Samuel 3:4). Abital gave birth to David's fifth son, Shephatiah, another minor biblical character.

People

As given name (female)

* Avital Sharansky, a Ukrainian activist and public figure in the Soviet Jewry Movement. *

Avital Ronell Avital Ronell ( ; ; born 15 April 1952) is an American academic who writes about continental philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the humanities and in the departments of Germanic ...

, an American professor. *

Avital Leibovich Avital Leibovich (Hebrew: אביטל ליבוביץ) is the Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Israel. Education Leibovich graduated with a BA in English Literature and Political Science from Bar Ilan University in 1992, and rece ...

, director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Israel. * Avital Abergel, an Israeli actress.

As given name (male)

* Avital Boruchovsky, an Israeli chess player. * Avital Inbar, an Israeli author. * Avital Selinger, an Israeli volleyball player. * Avital Tamir, an Israeli musician.

As surname

Mili Avital Mili Avital (; born March 30, 1972) is an Israeli actress. Her career began in Israel, starring on stage, film and television. She won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991, moved to New York in 1993 to study theatre in ...

, an Israeli actress, writer, and director. * Shay Avital, Major General (Ret.) in the IDF and former head of the Special Operations Forces Command. * Omer Avital, an Israeli-American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader. * Avi Avital, an Israeli mandolinist. * Tsion Avital, an Israeli philosopher of art and culture. * Eden Avital, an Israeli footballer. * Colette Avital, a Romanian-Israeli diplomat and politician. * Doron Avital, an Israeli politician. * Shmuel Avital, an Israeli politician.

References

{{Given name, type=both Hebrew-language_given_names Hebrew_unisex_given_names Hebrew feminine given names Feminine given names Hebrew masculine given names Masculine given names