Tzipporah comes from Hebrew and means bird; it is the biblical name of Moses's wife in the Old Testament.
Tzipporah is one of the oldest feminine names in the Hebrew biblical canon, derived from the root tzipor, meaning "bird" — most often understood as a small, swift bird such as a sparrow. The name carries the lightness and freedom associated with flight, and its biblical bearer is among the most quietly significant women in the entire Torah. Tzipporah was the Midianite daughter of the priest Jethro (Reuel) and became the wife of Moses, playing a pivotal and often underappreciated role in the Exodus narrative.
In one of the Torah's most mysterious passages, she saves Moses's life by circumcising their son, an act of fierce maternal and spiritual agency that scholars have debated for millennia. The name's Hebraic spelling with the tzadik letter and the double-p approximation in transliteration gives it an immediately distinctive written form in English, marking it as a name with deep roots in Jewish tradition. Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Mizrahi communities have all preserved Tzipporah across generations, and it enjoys a particular revival in Israel today alongside other biblical names reclaimed from antiquity.
The shorter variant Zipporah appears in many English Bible translations, while Tzipi has become a popular Israeli nickname — most famously associated with Israeli politician Tzipi Livni. Tzipporah occupies a rare space: it is ancient without feeling archaic, spiritual without being heavy, and carries within its bird-root a perpetual sense of grace and movement. For families rooted in Jewish heritage, it represents an unbroken thread stretching back to the desert.