New name, new relationship

Abram and Sarai

Abram = exalted father
Abraham = father of multitudes
Sarai = princess
Sarah = mother of nations, noblewoman
Source(s):
Gen. 11 & 17

Jewish Encyclopedia, "Abraham."

The original and proper form of this name seems to be either "Abram" or "Abiram" (I Kings, xvi. 34; Deut. xi. 6), with the meaning, "my Father [or my God] is exalted." The form "Abraham" yields no sense in Hebrew, and is probably only a graphic variation of "Abram," the h being simply a letter, indicating a preceding vowel, a; but popular tradition explains it "father of a multitude" (ab hamon), given as a new name on the occasion of a turning-point in the patriarch's career (Gen. xvii. 5). The name is personal, not tribal; it appears as a personal name in Babylonia in the time of Apil-Sin (about 2320 B.C.; Meissner, "Beiträge zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht," No. 111), and is not employed in the Old Testament in an ethnical sense (for example, it is not so employed in Micah, vii. 20, nor in Isa. xli. 8).

Jewish Encyclopedia, "Sarah / Sarai."

The two forms of the name, "Sarah" and "Sarai," are identical in meaning; it is difficult to understand the reason for the change. "Sarai" is probably the more archaic form of "Sarah," though the termination "ai" is unusual in the feminine. The writer of Gen. xvii. 15 must have considered the "ah" of "Sarah" as implying in some way "yahu" or "yah" (the "Yhwh" element). Accordingly, the change would be similar to that of "Joshua" to "Jehoshua." Perhaps it was the intention to read the name "Sarayahu," the "hu" being added to "Sarai." In that case the meaning "princess" now given to "Sarah" must be abandoned. The element "sarah" is identical with a part of the name "Israel," and "Sarah" and "Sarai" are appropriate names for Israel's mother (Isa. li. 2; comp. Robertson Smith, "Kinship and Marriage," p. 30; for the forms see Olshausen, "Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache," § 110; Nöldeke, in "Z. D M. G." 1886, p. 183; 1888, p. 484; König, "Historisch-Kritisches Lehrgebäude," II. i. 427). The name "Sa-ra-a" is reported to occur in Babylonian tablets (Cheyne and Black, "Encyc. Bibl." iv. 4285, note 3).