The Hebrew name for Moses is ‘Mosheh.’ The bible records in the book of Exodus 2:10 “And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, because I drew him out of the water”. So it was an African woman, Pharaohs daughter who gave him the name. According to The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in Egyptian language, Moshe means a son. Thus, his naming is prefaced by a phrase that is literally translated, ‘he became to her as a son’ (cf. Ibn Ezra; Hadar Zekenim). Significantly, the suffix moshe is found (and exclusively so) in the names of many Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty, such as Ka-moshe (‘son of [Ra’s] majesty’), Ach-moshe (Ahmose; ‘son of the moon,’ or ‘the moon is born’) and Toth-moshe (Thutmose; ‘son of Toth’). It is somehow believed that the word moshe may be of semitic origin introduced by the Semitic Hyksos in Egypt, however I personally disagree with this as you will see below. The name Moshe may indeed be of Egyptian origin, Fergo Somo brings to view that the ancient Egyptian language consisted on Kiswahili-Bantu languages, indeed if we look at Sesotho/Tswana words for a boy or son ‘Moshemane’ or ‘Mashanyana’ the word is also used at times as Mosha or Moshe. The Sesotho/Tswana name has a close approximation in sound and meaning with that of the ancient Egyptian language. Another interesting thing is the fact that in Sesotho bible the name used is Moshe, one does not know why those who were translating the scriptures to Sesotho chose the name Moshe instead of other variants of Moses as indicated below. I STRONGLY BELIEVE BASED ON THE ABOVE THAT MOSHE IS AN AFRICAN NAME….
VARIANTS: Moss (English), Moshe (Hebrew), Moses (latin) Moishe (Yiddish), Moyses (Biblical Latin)
OTHER LANGUAGES: Musa (Arabic), Mouses (Biblical Greek), Moshe (Biblical Hebrew), Mozes (Dutch), Mose (German), Mózes (Hungarian), Musa (Persian), Moisés (Portuguese), Moisey (Russian), Moisés (Spanish), Musa (Turkish)
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