From Phoenician meaning 'grace of Baal'; famously borne by the Carthaginian general.
Hannibal is a Phoenician name composed of ḥannī (grace, favour) and Ba'al (the Canaanite deity, meaning lord or master), yielding the meaning grace of Ba'al or favoured by the lord. The Phoenicians of Carthage used names invoking Ba'al extensively, and Hannibal was among the most distinguished — borne by several Carthaginian military officers before it became indelibly attached to one of the ancient world's greatest commanders. Hannibal Barca (247–183 BC) led Carthage against Rome in the Second Punic War, famously crossing the Alps with war elephants in a daring winter campaign, then defeating Roman armies at Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and — most catastrophically for Rome — Cannae in 216 BC, where his encirclement tactics killed perhaps 50,000 Roman soldiers in a single afternoon.
Military theorists study Cannae to this day. Though Hannibal never took Rome itself and was eventually defeated by Scipio Africanus at Zama, his genius was so acknowledged that even his Roman enemies immortalised him. His name entered Western consciousness as a byword for brilliant, terrifying strategic audacity.
In modern popular culture, the name took a darker turn with Hannibal Lecter, the cultured, cannibalistic psychiatrist created by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon (1981) and made iconic by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). That association is difficult to ignore, yet it has paradoxically kept the name vivid and in circulation — sinister glamour being its own kind of currency. Parents drawn to Hannibal today tend to be students of history who want to honour the Carthaginian general, and they choose a name as bold and memorable as any in the ancient world.