gad

Gad is a masculine given name of Hebrew origin. The meaning is often given as fortune or luck, deriving from the Hebrew root g-d. In the Hebrew Bible, Gad is the seventh son of Jacob and Zilpah, and the name gave rise to the Tribe of Gad, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribe settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River in the region of Gilead and contributed to Israelite military campaigns.

In modern usage, Gad appears as an acronym in several fields. GAD commonly stands for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a mental health condition characterized by chronic worry and physical symptoms. In neuroscience, GAD denotes glutamate decarboxylase, the enzyme that converts glutamate to the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA; the genes GAD1 and GAD2 encode the major isoforms, GAD67 and GAD65.

The verb gad is archaic in English, meaning to roam or go about, as in gad about town. The name Gad continues to be used in Jewish and Arab communities and is encountered in religious and historical contexts.