Zadkiel is a Hebrew angelic name usually interpreted as righteousness of God or justice of God.
Zadkiel is one of the most luminous names drawn from Jewish and Christian angelology — the name of an archangel whose very title encodes a theology of mercy. In Hebrew, *Zadkiel* (צַדְקִיאֵל) means 'righteousness of God' or 'God is my righteousness,' formed from *tzedek* (righteousness, justice) and *El* (God). In the mystical traditions of Second Temple Judaism and later Kabbalah, Zadkiel is counted among the highest angelic beings, typically listed as the angel of mercy, freedom, benevolence, and forgiveness.
In some traditions, he is identified as the angel who stayed Abraham's hand before the sacrifice of Isaac — an act of divine compassion that altered the course of history. Zadkiel's role across religious literature is consistently associated with the tempering of justice with mercy — a profound theological tension that has animated Jewish and Christian thought for millennia. He appears in the *Third Book of Enoch*, various Kabbalistic texts, and in certain Gnostic and early Christian writings as a presider over Jupiter (linking the name to astrological tradition as well).
In Victorian England, 'Zadkiel' became the pen name of Richard James Morrison, a popular astrologer whose almanacs sold hundreds of thousands of copies annually, embedding the name in nineteenth-century popular culture. As a given name, Zadkiel remains rare and boldly chosen — a signal of deep spiritual or mystical inclination in parents who bestow it. It carries a gravity and otherworldliness unlike almost any other name in the English-speaking world, rich with the atmosphere of ancient texts and celestial courts.