And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael - (see the note at Genesis 16:11.) The names given to children in ancient times were generally significant, having a reference to some peculiarity in the appearance or the destiny of the child, or to some remarkable incident in the experience of the parents. This is the first instance of a name being fixed before the child's birth, though several occur in later periods of the sacred history; and it was doubtless conferred by Abraham, after learning from the lips of Hagar an account of the angelic communication to which he was indebted for the preservation both of the mother and her child.