Hebrew name meaning bird; the wife of Moses in the Old Testament.
Zipporah comes from the Hebrew *Tzipporah*, derived from *tzippor* (bird), making it essentially an ancient Hebrew name meaning "little bird" or simply "bird." In the Hebrew Bible, Zipporah occupies a unique and underappreciated position: she is the Midianite wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro (also called Reuel), the priest of Midian who sheltered Moses after his flight from Egypt. Their marriage crosses ethnic and religious lines—Zipporah is not an Israelite—and this intermarriage would later be the subject of bitter controversy among Moses's own people, with Miriam and Aaron criticizing Moses for his "Cushite wife."
Zipporah's most dramatic biblical moment occurs in one of Scripture's most enigmatic passages (Exodus 4:24-26), in which God inexplicably attacks Moses on the road—or perhaps attacks their son—and Zipporah quickly circumcises the child with a flint stone and touches Moses's feet with the foreskin, saying "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." The scene is obscure, theologically vexing, and has occupied commentators for centuries; what it makes clear is that Zipporah acts decisively and saves her husband's life. She is, in the Hebrew text, an agent and a protector—not a passive figure.
The name has remained in continuous use in Jewish communities and among Christians who favor biblical names, and has seen modest growth in recent years as parents seek Old Testament names with deep roots but low modern frequency. Zipporah carries the double grace of its etymology and its story: a bird of a name, light and ancient, belonging to a woman who stood between Moses and divine wrath and did not flinch.