A biblical Hebrew name meaning “my strength is Yahweh,” borne by a king of Judah.
Uzziah is a name of ancient Hebrew origin, constructed from 'oz' (strength or might) and 'Yah' (a shortened form of Yahweh, the divine name). Together they form the declaration: 'God is my strength.' It belongs to the tradition of theophoric Hebrew names—names that embed a reference to the divine—alongside companions like Elijah, Hezekiah, and Zechariah.
This naming practice was a covenant act, a statement of faith woven into a child's identity from birth. In the Hebrew Bible, Uzziah appears most prominently as one of the longer-reigning kings of Judah, ruling for approximately 52 years in the 8th century BCE. Also recorded as Azariah in some passages, he presided over a period of military expansion and economic prosperity—strengthening Jerusalem's walls, reorganizing the army, and developing agricultural projects.
Yet his reign ended in tragedy: he contracted leprosy after presumptuously offering incense in the Temple, a priestly duty reserved for the sons of Aaron. His affliction is referenced in the Book of Isaiah as a temporal marker: 'In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.' For much of Christian history, Uzziah remained confined to biblical study, too ancient and too solemn for everyday use.
But in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, parents—particularly in African American and evangelical Christian communities—began reclaiming Old Testament names with renewed enthusiasm, drawn to their spiritual weight and rarity. Uzziah carries both gravitas and distinctiveness, a name that arrives with an entire civilization's worth of story already attached.