Urijah is a variant of Uriah, from Hebrew, meaning "my light is the Lord" or "flame of God."
Urijah is a powerful variant of the biblical Hebrew name Uriah, composed of the elements uri (my light, my flame) and Yah (a shortened form of YHWH, the name of God in Hebrew scripture). The full meaning renders as 'God is my light' or 'flame of the Lord' — an image of divine luminescence that gave the name profound spiritual resonance for generations of Jewish, Christian, and later Muslim communities. The name belongs to a family of theophoric Hebrew names — names that contain the name of God — that includes Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Josiah.
In the Hebrew Bible, Uriah the Hittite is one of the most poignant figures: a loyal soldier in King David's army and the husband of Bathsheba. His story, in which David arranges his death after coveting Bathsheba, has been interpreted for millennia as a moral reckoning about power, loyalty, and consequence. The prophet Uriah (Urijah in some translations) also appears in the Book of Jeremiah as a man who spoke truth to power and paid a fatal price.
Both figures gave the name a gravity that made it common in the ancient Near East and popular among Puritans and early Protestant settlers who named their children for biblical figures. The Urijah spelling — with its j rather than h — echoes the influence of Elijah and reflects how the name has been adapted in African American communities, where it has experienced a notable revival in recent decades. Mixed martial artist Urijah Faber brought the name to contemporary sports culture. Today, Urijah resonates as a name of ancient spiritual depth and modern grit.