Jah is a short form of the divine name Yahweh in Hebrew tradition.
Jah is one of the oldest divine names in recorded human religion. It derives from "Yah," a contracted form of the Tetragrammaton YHWH — the sacred Hebrew name of God that appears in the Hebrew Bible and that observant Jews historically refrained from pronouncing aloud. The abbreviated form Yah or Jah appears in the Psalms, most famously embedded in the word "Hallelujah," which means "praise Yah" in Hebrew.
It also appears as a standalone word in Psalm 68:4, which in the King James Bible reads, "Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah." Jah gained global cultural currency through the Rastafari movement, which emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s. Rastafarians adopted Jah as their primary name for God, drawing on the King James Bible while connecting it to the divine nature they ascribed to Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
Through reggae music — and especially through Bob Marley, whose songs referenced Jah hundreds of times across his catalog — the name became known worldwide, carrying associations of spiritual sovereignty, resistance, and liberation. Phrases like "Give thanks to Jah" or "Jah bless" entered global vocabulary through reggae's extraordinary reach. As a given name, Jah is rare and carries considerable weight.
Parents who choose it are typically making a deliberate theological or cultural statement — affirming faith, heritage, or a connection to Rastafari tradition. It functions as a name that needs no elaboration: short, resonant, ancient, and charged with millennia of devotional energy.