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Means "lion" in Hebrew. This was the name of an officer of king Pekahiah in the Old Testament.

Biblical Hebrew name meaning "lion." The lion is the symbol of the Israelite Tribe of Judah.

At least since the first decade of the 18th century, animal names which had not been used as given names in Biblical times (most of them being the names of large predators) are evident among the East European Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities. Later on, these German names were translated back into the Hebrew equivalent of the Germanized name. Lev/Leo/Loeb became Arieh became Judah.

Because of the tendency for many Jews to move around in Europe and North America during this period, many Jews often tried to 'localize' their names into the local linguistic equivalents. The result was that, for example, Aryeh or Leyb often became Leo, Leon, Loeb and other equivalents in various parts of the world.

Typically, bi-lingual names were used, the animal name appearing first in Hebrew (the Holy Language for these communities), often as companion name to the name of one of the Twelve Tribes, followed by the corresponding name (that is, having the same meaning) in Yiddish (the vernacular of daily life).

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Arieh was the name of an officer of king Pekahiah in the Old Testament.