Hebrew name meaning 'God is my reward'; a biblical teacher of the apostle Paul.
Gamaliel comes from the Hebrew גַּמְלִיאֵל (Gamliel), typically interpreted as "my reward is God" or "God is my recompense," a construction that places it among the theophoric names — names that embed the divine directly into their meaning — so characteristic of ancient Israelite culture. The name appears in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Numbers, where Gamaliel son of Pedahzur is listed as the leader of the tribe of Manasseh during the wilderness period, establishing the name's biblical credibility at the highest level of Israelite tribal identity. The name's most towering historical bearer is Gamaliel the Elder, also known as Rabban Gamaliel I, the first-century CE Pharisaic sage who appears in the New Testament's Acts of the Apostles as a voice of moderation urging the Sanhedrin not to persecute the early Christians.
He is also traditionally identified as the teacher of Saul of Tarsus — the man who became Paul — giving Gamaliel a quietly extraordinary position at the hinge of two major world religions. In rabbinic tradition, his reputation was immense: it was said that "when Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the Torah ceased." The name traveled into Christian usage precisely because of this New Testament cameo, and it was common enough among Puritan settlers of New England to land on the 29th President of the United States — Warren G.
Harding, whose middle name Gamaliel he rarely publicized. Today Gamaliel is extremely rare in secular naming culture but survives with quiet dignity in certain Jewish, Christian fundamentalist, and Latino communities where deep biblical roots are prized. It is a name that demands to be spoken fully — all five syllables — and rewards the effort.