Biblical name of Egyptian origin meaning belonging to the goddess Neith; wife of Joseph.
Asenath steps directly out of the pages of Genesis, introduced as the Egyptian wife given to Joseph by Pharaoh after his dramatic rise to power. The name is almost certainly of Egyptian origin rather than Hebrew, with linguists suggesting it may derive from the Egyptian 'ns-nt,' meaning 'she belongs to Neith' — Neith being one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses, associated with weaving, warfare, and wisdom. An alternative reading connects it to 'gift of the sun god,' reflecting the cosmopolitan religious landscape of ancient Egypt.
The Book of Genesis gives Asenath only a brief mention as the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh, but she attracted significant later elaboration. A Jewish pseudepigraphical work called 'Joseph and Aseneth,' composed sometime between the first century BCE and the second century CE, expands her story into a lengthy conversion narrative — she renounces her pagan idols, endures a mystical transformation, and becomes a model of the sincere convert. This text made Asenath a figure of theological importance in certain Jewish and early Christian traditions, and she is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
As a given name in the English-speaking world, Asenath was used primarily by Puritan and nonconformist families who mined the entire Bible for names, including obscure ones as a mark of scriptural seriousness. It appears in colonial New England records, and the poet and author Asenath Nicholson, a nineteenth-century Irish famine relief worker, gave the name a brief moment of biographical prominence. It remains extraordinarily rare today — a genuine relic name with ancient gravitas for families willing to field questions at roll call.