Lemuel

Lemuel is a male given name of Hebrew origin, commonly interpreted as meaning "devoted to God" or "belonging to God," from the elements le- "to" and El "God." In the Hebrew Bible, Lemuel appears in Proverbs 31 as "the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him." The exact identity of Lemuel is uncertain; some scholars treat him as a historical king, while others view the passage as a didactic introduction or a form of narrative device rather than a straightforward historical figure.

The name has been used in Jewish and Christian communities and entered broader English-speaking usage in the medieval and early modern periods, continuing as a given name into the present, though it remains relatively uncommon.

In literature, Lemuel Gulliver, the narrator and protagonist of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), is a well-known fictional bearer of the name.

Variants in transliteration include Lemu'el in Hebrew or other renderings; the English form Lemuel has become the standard modern spelling. The name's biblical associations have contributed to its continued, though limited, use in contemporary naming.