Abba (given name)

Abba is a form of ab, meaning "father" in many Semitic languages. It is used as a given name, but was also used as a title or honorific for religious scholars or leaders. (The word abbot has the same root.)

It also seems to be a shortened form of the name Abraham.

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

Jewish/Babylonian/Palestinian religious scholars

• Abba of Acre (3rd century), Jewish religious scholar
• Abba Arika (175-247), Jewish/Babylonian religious scholar
• Abba bar Abba (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 as Rava
• Abba Mordechai Berman (1919-2005), Polish Jewish rabbi and religious scholar
• Abba Hilkiah (1st century), Jewish Hasidic sage
• Abba Jose ben Hanan (1st century), Jewish sage and tanna
• Abba Mari (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 in what is today southwestern Ethiopia
• Abba Gomol, ruler of the Kingdom of Jimma 1862-78; son of Abba Bok'a
• Abba Jifar I (ruled 1830 - c. 1855) and Abba Jifar II (ruled 1878-1932), kings of the Kingdom of Jimma
• Abba Jofir, Ethiopian aristocrat briefly (1932) king of the Kingdom of Jimma
• Abba Magal (c. 1800), Oromo leader, father of Abba Jifar I, founder of the Kingdom of Jimma

Others

• Abba (Boko Haram) (d. 2013), A former leader of Boko Haram
• Abba (count), a Frisian count
• Abba Ahimeir (1897-1962), Russian Jewish journalist, historian, and Zionist
• Abba Eban (1915–2002), an Israeli diplomat and politician
• 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
• Abba Hushi (1898-1969), Israeli politician
• Abba Kovner (1918-1987), Lithuanian Jewish/Israeli poet, writer, and partisan leader
• Abba Kyari (b. 1938), Nigerian military officer, governor, and business leader
• Abba P. Lerner (1903–1982), an American economist
• Abba Musa Rimi (b. 1940), Nigerian politician, governor of Kaduna State
• Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963), U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader