A Hebrew form of Zipporah meaning bird, best known from the biblical wife of Moses.
Tzipora — also spelled Tzipporah or Zipporah — is one of the most significant women in the Hebrew Bible whose name receives almost no attention. Derived from the Hebrew root צִפּוֹר (tzippor), meaning 'bird,' she was the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest, and the wife of Moses. In a brief but striking episode in Exodus, it is Tzipora who saves Moses's life by performing a circumcision at a roadside inn when God threatens to kill him — an act of decisive, competent courage that the text notes without fully explaining, leaving readers to sense the weight of her understanding.
She acted when Moses could not or would not. The name has been used continuously in Jewish communities across millennia, particularly among Ashkenazi Jews who cherished biblical names with Hebrew roots. In modern Israel it remains a recognized though not extremely common name, often shortened to the affectionate Tzippi — famously borne by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli politician and former Foreign Minister who was at various points a leading peace negotiator and one of the most powerful women in Israeli political history.
The nickname Tzippi carries warmth and accessibility while the full Tzipora retains its biblical gravity. The bird imagery embedded in the name adds a dimension of grace and freedom — birds in many traditions symbolize the soul, the spirit, the messenger between worlds. For a name connected to the story of Moses and the Exodus, this seems entirely fitting: Tzipora stands at the threshold between the Midianite world and the Hebrew one, a bridge between peoples, carrying the lightness of flight in her very name.