Hebrew name meaning 'deer' or 'gazelle,' symbolizing grace and swiftness, rooted in biblical tradition.
Zevi — also rendered Tzvi or Zvi — is a Hebrew name of ancient lineage, drawn directly from the word for deer or gazelle. In biblical Hebrew, the tzvi was a symbol of swiftness, elegance, and fierce natural beauty; the Song of Songs invokes the image repeatedly in its love poetry, comparing the beloved to a gazelle bounding across mountains. The name appears in the tribe of Naphtali's blessing in Genesis, where the metaphor of a swift deer connotes both freedom and grace.
For centuries it has been a given name in Jewish communities across the Ashkenazi and Sephardic worlds, sometimes used as a Hebrew name paired with a vernacular one. The most historically significant — and historically turbulent — bearer was Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), the Ottoman-born rabbi who ignited one of Judaism's most dramatic mass movements when he declared himself the Messiah. His followers, the Sabbateans, numbered in the hundreds of thousands across Europe and the Middle East before his forced conversion to Islam shattered the movement and sent shockwaves through Jewish theology that scholars still trace today.
His story is a strange and cautionary one, but it ensured the name Zevi carried a charged weight in collective memory. In contemporary usage, Zevi has shed that burden and emerged as a fresh, melodic Hebrew alternative to names like Levi and Avi. Its two-syllable rhythm is easy in any language, and its meaning connects bearers to one of the natural world's most graceful animals. It is particularly beloved in observant Jewish communities as a name that is deeply rooted yet feels modern and unheavy.