Abba is a form of ab, meaning "father" in many

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

. It is used as a given name, but was also used as a title or honorific for religious scholars or leaders. (The word

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

has the same root.)

Persons with the given name Abba, or who are known by that title

Jewish/Babylonian/Palestinian religious scholars

Abba of Acre Abba of Acre ( he, , translit: ''Abba d'min Akko'') was an '' amora'' from Acre who flourished at the end of the 3rd century. He was greatly respected by Rabbi Abbahu Rabbi Abbahu ( he, אבהו) was a Jew and Talmudist of the Talmudic Academ ...

(3rd century), Jewish religious scholar *

Abba Arika Abba Arikha (175–247 CE; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ; born: ''Rav Abba bar Aybo'', ), commonly known as Rav (), was a Jewish amora of the 3rd century. He was born and lived in Kafri, Asoristan, in the Sasanian Empire. Abba Arikha establis ...

(175-247), Jewish/Babylonian religious scholar *

Abba bar Abba Abba bar Abba ( Aramic: אבא בר אבא, or Father of Samuel, Aramic: אבוה דשמואל; Cited in the Jerusalem Talmud as Abba bar Ba, Aramic: אבא בר בא) was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia in the 2nd-3rd centuries (firs ...

(2nd-3rd century), Jewish/Babylonian religious scholar * Abba bar Zabdai (3rd century), Jewish/Palestinian religious scholar *''Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama'' (270-350), Jewish/Babylonian religious scholar known in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

as Rava * Abba Mordechai Berman (1919-2005), Polish Jewish rabbi and religious scholar * Abba Hilkiah (1st century), Jewish Hasidic sage *

Abba Jose ben Hanan Abba Jose ben Hanan or Abba Jose ben Hanin (Hebrew; Aramaic: Abba bar Hanan) was a tanna who lived in Judea. His name occurs also as "Abba Jose ben Hanan," or "ben Johanan" (which is erroneously followed by "ish Yerushalayim"), "Abba Joseph," and " ...

(1st century), Jewish sage and tanna *

Abba Mari Rabbi Abba Mari ben Moses ben Joseph, was a Provençal rabbi, born at Lunel, near Montpellier, towards the end of the 13th century. He is also known as Yarhi from his birthplace (Hebrew ''Yerah'', i.e. moon, lune), and he further took the name ...

(13th-14th century), French/Jewish rabbi * Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli (c. 1194-1256), a French/Jewish scholar and translator of Arabic texts * Raba (Rabbah) Bar Jeremiah (Also called "Abba"), a Jewish Talmudist

Horse names of Jimma rulers

* Abba Bok'a (died 1862), a ruler of the

Kingdom of Jimma The Kingdom of Jimma ( om, Mootummaa Jimmaa) was an Oromo kingdom in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 18th century. It shared its western border with Limmu-Ennarea, its eastern border with the Sidamo Kingdom of Janjero, and w ...

in what is today southwestern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Abba Gomol ''Moti'' Abba Gomol was King of the Gibe Kingdom of Jimma (reigned 1862–1878). Reign Abba Gomol was the son of Abba Bok'a and a woman from the Busase family of the Kingdom of Kaffa. His major achievement was conquering the Kingdom of Gar ...

, ruler of the

1862-78; son of Abba Bok'a * Abba Jifar I (ruled 1830 - c. 1855) and

Abba Jifar II ''Moti'' Abba Jifar II ( om, Mootii Abbaa Jifaar; 1861 – 1932) was King of the Gibe Kingdom of Jimma (r. 1878–1932). Reign Abba Jifar II was king of Jimma, and the son of Abba Gomol and Queen Gumiti. He had several wives: Queen Limmiti ...

(ruled 1878-1932), kings of the

* Abba Jofir, Ethiopian aristocrat briefly (1932) king of the

* Abba Magal (c. 1800), Oromo leader, father of Abba Jifar I, founder of the

Others

* Abba (count), a Frisian count * Abba Thulle, ibedul of Koror * Abba Ahimeir (1897-1962), Russian Jewish journalist, historian, and Zionist *

Abba Eban Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; he, אבא אבן ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages. During his career, he served as For ...

(1915–2002), Israeli diplomat and politician, and President of the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

* Abba Gerasimus (5th century), Lycian Christian monk and abbot revered as a saint * Abba Gindin (b. 1946), Finnish/Israeli ice hockey player * Abba Habib, Nigerian politician * Abbot "Abbie" Hoffman, whose Hebrew name was Abba *

Abba Hushi Abba Hushi (Also: Aba Khoushy; he, אבא חושי; born Abba Schneller; 1898 – 24 March 1969) was an Israeli politician who served as mayor of Haifa for eighteen years between 1951 and 1969. Hushi was one of the founders and activists of Ha ...

(1898-1969), Israeli politician *

Abba Kovner Abba Kovner ( he, אבא קובנר; 14 March 1918 – 25 September 1987) was a Polish Israeli poet, writer and partisan leader. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a target of the Holocaust identified the German plan to ...

(1918-1987), Lithuanian Jewish/Israeli poet, writer, and partisan leader * Abba Kyari (1938-2020), Nigerian military officer, governor, and business leader *

Abba P. Lerner Abraham "Abba" Ptachya Lerner (also Abba Psachia Lerner; 28 October 1903 – 27 October 1982) was a Russian-born American-British economist. Biography Born in Novoselytsia, Bessarabia, Russian Empire, Lerner grew up in a Jewish family, which e ...

(1903–1982), American economist *

Abba Musa Rimi Abba Musa Rimi CON (born 28 February 1940) is a Nigerian politician who was elected Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Nigeria in October 1979 during the Nigerian Second Republic, becoming acting governor when the Governor Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa ...

(b. 1940), Nigerian politician, governor of

Kaduna State Kaduna State ( ha, Jihar Kaduna جىِهَر كَدُنا; ff, Leydi Kaduna, script=Latn, ; kcg, Sitet Kaduna) is a state in northern Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna which happened to be the 8th largest city in ...

Abba Hillel Silver Abba Hillel Silver (January 28, 1893 – November 28, 1963) was an American Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel, though he saw such a settlement as a m ...

(1893–1963), U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader * Abba Goold Woolson (1838-1921), American writer * Abba Wada, Nigerian business tycoon, and hero

Persons with the given name Abba, or who are known by that title

Jewish/Babylonian/Palestinian religious scholars

Horse names of Jimma rulers

Others

See also