This list provides names given in history and traditions for people who appear to be unnamed in the Bible.

Hebrew Bible

Serpent of Genesis

Revelation 12 is thought to identify the serpent with Satan, unlike the pseudepigraphical-apocryphal Apocalypse of Moses (Vita Adae et Evae) where the Devil works with the serpent.

Wives of the antediluvian patriarchs

The pseudepigraphical Book of Jubilees provides names for a host of otherwise unnamed biblical characters, including wives for most of the antediluvian patriarchs. The last of these is Noah's wife, to whom it gives the name of Emzara. Other Jewish traditional sources contain many different names for Noah's wife. The Book of Jubilees says that Awan was Adam and Eve's first daughter. Their second daughter Azura married Seth. For many of the early wives in the series, Jubilees notes that the patriarchs married their sisters. The Cave of Treasures and the earlier Kitab al-Magall (part of Clementine literature) name entirely different women as the wives of the patriarchs, with considerable variations among the extant copies. The Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq (c. 750), as cited in al-Tabari (c. 915), provides names for these wives which are generally similar to those in Jubilees, but he makes them Cainites rather than Sethites, despite clearly stating elsewhere that none of Noah's ancestors were descended from Cain.

Cain and Abel's sisters

Appears in the Bible at: Genesis 4:17 Appears in the Bible at: Genesis 4 See also: Balbira and Kalmana, Azura and Awan for alternate traditions of names.

Noah's wife

Appears in the Bible at: Genesis 4:22; Gen. 7:7 Daughter of Lamech and Zillah and sister of Tubal-cain (Gen. iv. 22). According to Abba ben Kahana, Naamah was Noah's wife and was called "Naamah" (pleasant) because her conduct was pleasing to God. But the majority of the rabbis reject this statement, declaring that Naamah was an idolatrous woman who sang "pleasant" songs to idols. See also Wives aboard the Ark for a list of traditional names given to the wives of Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Ham's wife

Appears in the Bible in Genesis 7 and 6 The Mormon Book of Abraham, first published in 1842, mentions Egyptus (Abraham 1:23) as being the name of Ham's wife; his daughter apparently had the same name (v. 25).

Nimrod's wife

A large body of legend has attached itself to Nimrod, whose brief mention in Genesis merely makes him "a mighty hunter in the face of the Lord". (The biblical account makes no mention of a wife at all.) These legends usually make Nimrod to be a sinister figure, and they reach their peak in Hislop's The Two Babylons, which make Nimrod and his wife Semiramis to be the original authors of every false and pagan religion.

Mother of Abraham

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Genesis

Lot's married daughter

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Genesis

Lot's wife

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Genesis

Laban's wife

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Genesis

Potiphar's wife

Appears in the Bible at: Genesis 39:12 Potiphar's wife attempted to seduce Joseph in Egypt.

Pharaoh's daughter

Appears in the Bible at: Exodus 2 Pharaoh's daughter, who drew Moses out of the water, is known as Bithiah in Jewish tradition (identifying her with the "Pharaoh's daughter Bithiah" in 1 Chronicles 4:18).

Simeon's wife

Appears in the Bible at: Genesis 34

Pharaoh's magicians

Appears in the Bible at: Exodus 7 The names of Jannes and Jambres, or Jannes and Mambres, were well known through the ancient world as magicians. In this instance, nameless characters from the Hebrew Bible are given names in the New Testament. Their names also appear in numerous Jewish texts.

The Cushitic wife of Moses

Appears in the Bible at: Numbers 12

Job's wives

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Job Apocryphal Jewish folklore says that Sitis, or Sitidos, was Job's first wife, who died during his trials. After his temptation was over, the same sources say that Job remarried Dinah, Jacob's daughter who appears in Genesis. The source does not tell which wife of Job has this name.

Jephthah's daughter

Appears in the Bible at: Judges 11 The Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum falsely ascribes itself to the Jewish author Philo. It in fact did not surface until the sixteenth century; see Works of Philo.

Samson's mother

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Judges 13

David's mother

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Samuel

The Witch of Endor

Appears in the Bible at: 1 Samuel 28

The Man of God

Appears in the Bible at: 2 Chronicles 12:15 and 1 Kings 13

The wise woman of Abel

Appears in the Bible at: 2 Samuel 20

The Queen of Sheba

Appears in the Bible at: 1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9 According to Ethiopian traditions, the Queen of Sheba returned to Ethiopia pregnant with King Solomon's child. She bore Solomon a son that went on to found a dynasty that ruled Ethiopia until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

Jeroboam's wife

Appears in the Bible at: 1 Kings 14

Haman's mother

Appears in the Bible at: Book of Esther

Old Testament deuterocanonicals

The Deuterocanonical books, sometimes called the "Apocrypha", are considered canonical by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox (though these churches' lists of books differ slightly from each other).

Seven Maccabees and their mother

The woman with seven sons is a Jewish martyr who is unnamed in 2 Maccabees 7, but is named Hannah, Miriam, Shamuna and Solomonia in other sources. According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, her sons, the "Holy Maccabean Martyrs" (not to be confused with the martyrs in the Ethiopian book of Meqabyan), are named Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus. According to the Syriac Maronite Fenqitho (book of festal offices), the name of the mother is Shmooni while her sons are Habroun, Hebsoun, Bakhous, Adai, Tarsai, Maqbai and Yawnothon.

The seven Archangels

Tobit 12:15 reads "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One." Of the six unnamed archangels, Michael is named in the Book of Daniel, and Gabriel is named in the Gospel of Luke. The Book of Enoch, deuterocanonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, names the remaining four archangels Uriel, Raguel, Zerachiel, and Ramiel. Other sources name them Uriel, Izidkiel, Haniel, and Kepharel. In the Coptic Orthodox Church the names of these four archangels are given as Suriel, Sedakiel, Sarathiel and Ananiel. Several other sets of names have also been given.

New Testament

The Magi

Appear in the Bible at Matthew 2. The Gospel does not state that there were, in fact, three magi or when exactly they visited Jesus, only that multiple magi brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Nevertheless, the number of magi is usually extrapolated from the number of gifts, and the three wise men are a staple of Christian nativity scenes. While the European names have enjoyed the most publicity, other faith traditions have different versions. According to the Armenisches Kindheitsevangelium, the three magi were brothers and kings, namely Balthasar, king of India; Melqon, king of Persia; and Gaspar, king of Arabia. The Chinese Christian Church believes that the astronomer Liu Xiang was one of the wise men.

The Nativity shepherds

Appear in the Bible at Luke 2.

Jesus' sisters

That Jesus had sisters is mentioned in and, although their exact number is not specified in either gospel. See. The various versions of Epiphanius differ on whether one of the sisters was named Maria or Anna.

The Innocents

Appears in the Bible at: Matthew 2:6–18.

Herodias' daughter

Appears in the Bible at Matthew 14, Mark 6.

Peter's wife

Syrophoenician woman

Appears in the Bible at Matthew 15, Mark 7. According to the same source, her daughter was Berenice.

The child with Jesus

Appears in the Bible at Mark 9. Several early Christian writers recorded a legend that the child whom Jesus took in his arms in Mark 9 was St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Hæmorrhaging woman

Appears in the Bible at. Veronica is a Latin variant of Berenice. Veronica or Berenice obtained some of Jesus' blood on a cloth at the Crucifixion (see also: Veil of Veronica). Tradition identifies her with the woman who was healed of a bleeding discharge in the Gospel.

Samaritan woman at the well

Appears in the Bible at John 4:5–42. In the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the name of the woman at the well when she met Jesus is unknown, but she became a follower of Christ, received the name Photini in baptism, proclaimed the Gospel over a wide area, and was later martyred. She is recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Damned rich man

Appears in the Bible at. Dives is simply Latin for "rich", and as such may not count as a proper name. The story of the blessed Lazarus and the damned rich man is widely recognised under the title of Dives and Lazarus, which may have resulted in this word being taken for a proper name.

Woman taken in adultery

Appears in the Bible at John 8. A long-standing Western Christian tradition first attested by Pope Gregory I identifies the woman taken in adultery with Mary Magdalene, and also with Mary of Bethany. Jesus had exorcised seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Mark ), and Mary Magdalene appears prominently in the several accounts of Jesus' entombment and resurrection, but there is no indication in the Bible that clearly states that Mary Magdalene was the same person as the adulteress forgiven by Jesus. Roman Catholics also have identified Mary Magdalene as the weeping woman who was a sinner, and who anoints Jesus' feet in, and while the Church has dropped this interpretation to a degree, this remains one of her more famous portrayals. The Eastern Orthodox Church has never identified Mary Magdalene as either the woman taken in adultery, or the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet.

The man born blind

Appears in the Bible at John.

Pontius Pilate's wife

Appears in the Bible at. During the trial of Jesus the wife of Pontius Pilate sent a message to him saying, "Have nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." The proposed names of Procla and Procula may not be names at all, but simply a form of Pilate's official title of Procurator, indicating that she was the Procurator's wife.

Thieves crucified with Jesus

Appear in the Bible at: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19. The good thief is revered under the name Saint Dismas in the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Soldier who pierced Jesus with a spear

Appears in the Bible at. In tradition, he is called Cassius before his conversion to Christianity. The Lance of Longinus, also known as the Spear of Destiny, is supposedly preserved as a relic, and various miracles are said to be worked through it.

Man who offered Jesus vinegar

Appears in the Bible at, , and.

Guard(s) at Jesus' tomb

Appears in the Bible at. Centurion possibly appears also in the Bible at.

Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by the deacon Philip

Appears in the Bible at Acts of the Apostles 8:27. In Eastern Orthodox tradition he is also identified with Simeon Niger.

Daughters of Philip

Appears in the Bible at Acts of the Apostles 21:8-9.