Genesis 17:5

5. Abram… Abraham With the giving of the covenant of circumcision is given also a new name . Hence the custom of giving names at the time of circumcision . Abram signifies high father; Abraham, father of a multitude, (by the addition of הם apparently shortened form of המון , translated many, or multitude, in this same verse and in Genesis 17:4. This seems a simpler derivation than to assume, as Gesenius and others, a lost root, רהם . ) Compare Genesis 17:15, where Sarai’s name is changed to Sarah . Thus the letter H, ( ה ,) which occurs twice in the memorial name Jehovah, is incorporated in the new names of both the father and mother of the chosen seed . Comp . the “new name” of Revelation 2:17; Revelation 3:12. By these new names Abraham and Sarah become divinely consecrated, as they had not so fully been before .