Genesis 1-11 is a text that may well have received more attention than any other in the history of literature. Nevertheless, what do we know about the personal names that occur in these chapters and whose influence has permeated all of Western literature? Hess provides a thorough investigation of the ancient Near Eastern background of these names and discusses how each played a key role in adding significance to the stories and genealogies in which they are found. By studying both the linguistic contexts in the surrounding cultures and the wordplay in the biblical texts, the author provides the first comprehensive study of the importance of these names and traces the implications of his results for the antiquity and power of the familiar stories in which they appear.