Thomas

Inherited from Middle English Thomas, from Latin Thōmās m (as in the Vulgate), from Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs), the Biblical Greek transcription of Aramaic תאומא or תאמא (“twin”), the nickname of one of the Twelve Apostles.

In the gospel of John (11:16, 20:24), the Aramaic nickname is also translated into Greek, as δίδυμος m (dídumos). Used as a given name since the Middle Ages, e.g. Thomas the Presbyter (7th century), Thomas the Slav (8th century), Thomas of Bayeux (died 1100).

(infidel or doubter): In reference to the doubting Apostle.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒ.məs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.məs/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ɒmas/, /ˈʈ-/
• Rhymes: -ɒməs

Thomas (plural Thomases)

1. (derogatory) An infidel or doubter.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     […] and if the surgeons do not preserve you, and place you on view, in pickle, they ought to, for the sake of historical doubters, for no one will believe that there ever was a man like you, unless you yourself are somewhere around to prove them Thomases.

Thomas (countable and uncountable, plural Thomases)

1. An Apostle, best remembered for doubting the resurrection of Jesus.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 20:24–25:

     But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

2. A male given name from Aramaic of biblical origin, popular since the 13th century.
   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 70:

     "Good,—that's a whack. What's your name?" / "Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer." / "That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me Tom, will you?"

   • 1941, Judith Kelly, Marriage is a Private Affair, Harper, published 1944, page 133:

     - - - goodness we scarcely have a name for the baby yet now all of you must take a vote, all of you, but let's have a nice simple name like Thomas don't you think I hate elaborate names, do please all of you vote for Thomas..."

3. A common surname originating as a patronymic.
   • 2006, Chris Wrigley, A.J.P. Taylor: Radical Historian of Europe, London – New York: I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 182:

     The reappearance of Dylan and Caitlin Thomas brought her the excitement again of literary gatherings and much uninhibited partying.²²³ For a woman of 41 the Thomases represented fun and an opportunity not to play second fiddle to a disapproving husband who was very clear as to what he wanted but not sensitive to her social needs.

   • 2025 March 16, Thomas Mackintosh & Merlyn Thomas, “Trump moves to close down Voice of America”, in BBC‎^[2]:

     CBS, the BBC's US news partner, said that VOA employees were notified in an email by Crystal Thomas, the USAGM human resources director.

   • 2025 July 8, Zoe Sottile, “He was born to a US citizen soldier on an army base in Germany. Now he’s been deported to Jamaica, a country he’d never been to”, in CNN‎^[3], archived from the original on 10 July 2025:

     Born on a US military base, the son of a US citizen father serving in the Army, Jermaine Thomas never considered he might not be American.

4. A number of places in the United States:
   1. An unincorporated community in Bureau County, Illinois.
   2. An unincorporated community in Daviess County, Indiana.
   3. A city in Custer County, Oklahoma.^[1]
      • 2009, Linda D. Wilson, “Thomas”, in The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture‎^[4], Oklahoma Historical Society, retrieved 13 March 2020:

        Located in northeastern Custer County, Thomas is situated at the intersection of State Highways 33 and 47. Originally, Thomas was a trading point where William Thomas had a general store and served as the first postmaster of a post office designated on February 12, 1894.

   4. A ghost town in Linn County, Oregon.
   5. An unincorporated community in Hamlin County, South Dakota.
   6. An unincorporated community in Buchanan County, Virginia.
   7. A former community in King County, Washington.
   8. A minor city in Tucker County, West Virginia.^[1]
   9. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Thomas Township.

• (female given names): Tamsin, Thomasina

• → Hawaiian: Kamaki
• → Maori: Tāmati
• → Scottish Gaelic: Tòmas

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Thomas is the 16th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 756,142 individuals. Thomas is most common among White (52.6%) and Black/African American (38.8%) individuals.

• Tomas

Thomas

1. Thomas (biblical figure)
2. a male given name of biblical origin

• (male given names) Tom, Tommy
• (female given names) Thomine
• (surnames) Thomasen, Thomassen, Thomsen

• → Greenlandic: Tuumarsi

• [5] Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 52 343 males with the given name Thomas have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1970s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.

• Tomas

Inherited from Middle Dutch thomas, from Latin Thōmās m, from Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs), from Aramaic תאומא.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtoː.mɑs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Tho‧mas

Thomas m

1. Thomas (biblical figure)
2. a male given name of biblical origin
3. a surname originating as a patronymic

• Tom, Tomas
• (surnames) Thomasse, Thomassen

Ultimately borrowed from Latin Thōmās m.

(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Inherited from Middle French Thomas m, inherited from Old French Tumas m, Latin Thōmās m.

Compare Occitan Tomàs m.

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.ma/ ~ /tɔ.mɑ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Thomas m

1. (biblical) Thomas
2. a male given name of biblical origin
   • 1862, Victor Hugo, chapter 2, in Les Misérables, Tome I : Fantine, book 4; republished as Isabel F. Hapgood, transl., 1887:

     Il n’est pas rare aujourd’hui que le garçon bouvier se nomme Arthur, Alfred ou Alphonse, et que le vicomte — s’il y a encore des vicomtes — se nomme Thomas, Pierre ou Jacques. Ce déplacement qui met le nom « élégant » sur le plébéien et le nom campagnard sur l’aristocrate n’est autre chose qu’un remous d’égalité. L’irrésistible pénétration du souffle nouveau est là comme en tout.

     It is not rare for the neatherd's boy nowadays to bear the name of Arthur, Alfred, or Alphonse, and for the vicomte--if there are still any vicomtes--to be called Thomas, Pierre, or Jacques. This displacement, which places the "elegant" name on the plebeian and the rustic name on the aristocrat, is nothing else than an eddy of equality. The irresistible penetration of the new inspiration is there as everywhere else.

3. a common surname originating as a patronymic

• → Vietnamese: Tô-ma, Tôma, Thô-ma

• “Thomas”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtoː.mas/

• Audio:

  (file)

Thomas m (proper noun, strong, genitive Thomas')

1. Thomas (biblical figure)
2. a male given name originating from the Bible

Thomas m or f (proper noun, surname, masculine genitive Thomas' or (with an article) Thomas, feminine genitive Thomas, plural Thomas or Thomasens)

1. a surname originating as a patronymic

• Tom

(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) From Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs), the Biblical Greek transcription of Aramaic תאומא or תאמא (“twin”), the nickname of one of the Twelve Apostles.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtʰoː.maːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt̪ɔː.mas]

Thōmās m (genitive Thōmae); first declension

1. (Christianity) Thomas the Apostle.
2. a male given name from Aramaic of Biblical origin

First-declension noun (masculine, Greek-type, nominative singular in -ās), singular only.

• The accusative is sometimes Thomam.

• Eastern Romance:
  • >? Romanian: Toma
• >? Italian: Tommaso
• → Sicilian: Tummasu
• Old Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: Tomás
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: Tomás
• >? Old French: Tumas m
  • Middle French: Thomas m
    • French: Thomas m
      • → Vietnamese: Tô-ma, Tôma, Thô-ma
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: Tomàs m
  • Occitan: Tomàs
• >? Old Galician-Portuguese: Thomas
  • Galician: Tomás, Tomé
  • Portuguese: Tomás, Thomás m (dated), Tomé
• >? Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: Tomás
    • → Cebuano: Tomas
    • → Tagalog: Tomas
    • → Chinese: 托馬斯 / 托马斯 (Tuōmǎsī) (transliteration)
  • Norman: Thonmas, Thomas
• Piedmontese: Tomà
• Sicilian: Tumasi
• Venetan: Tomà
• → Basque: Tomas
• → Czech: Tomáš
• → Danish: Thomas, Tomas
  • → Greenlandic: Tuumarsi
• → Estonian: Toomas
• → Faroese: Tummas
• → Finnish: Tuomas
• → German: Thomas
• → Hungarian: Tamás
• → Icelandic: Tómas
• → Irish: Tomás
• → Latvian: Toms, Tomass
• → Lithuanian: Tomas
• → Maltese: Tumas
• → Manx: Thomaase
• → Middle English: Thomas
  • English: Thomas
    • → Hawaiian: Kamaki
    • → Maori: Tāmati
    • → Scottish Gaelic: Tòmas
• → Norwegian: Thomas, Tomas
• → Polish: Tomasz
• → Sami: Dommá, Duomis, Duommá
• → Scottish Gaelic: Tàmhas, Tòmas
• → Slovak: Tomáš
• → Slovene: Tomaž
• → Swedish: Tomas, Thomas
• → Welsh: Tomos
• → West Frisian: Tomas

Borrowed from Latin Thōmās m.

Thomas

1. a male given name from Aramaic
   • 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Launcelot and Guinevere]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, recto, lines 18–21:

     And here on þͤ othir ſyde folowyth the moſte pytevous tale of the morte Arthure ſaunz Gwerdon · Ꝑ le ſhyvalere ẜ Thomᷓs Malleorre knyȝt

     And here on the other side followeth the most piteous tale of the mort d’Arthur sans guerdon, par le chevalier Sir Thomas Malory, knight.

• Thomme

• English: Thomas
  • → Hawaiian: Kamaki
  • → Maori: Tāmati
  • → Scottish Gaelic: Tòmas

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Thomas m

1. alternative form of Thonmas

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• Tomas

From Vulgate Medieval Latin Thōmās m, from Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs), from Aramaic ܬܐܘܡܐ or תאומא (“Thomas”), from ܬܐܡܐ or תאמא (“twin”). Recorded as a given name in Norway since the 13th century.

Thomas

1. a male given name

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• The most common given name of men born in Norway in the 1980s.

• Kristoffer Kruken - Ola Stemshaug: Norsk personnamnleksikon, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1995, →ISBN
• [6] Statistisk sentralbyrå, Namnestatistikk: 23 499 males with the given name Thomas ( compared to 2 408 named Tomas) living in Norway on January 1st 2011, with the frequency peak in the 1980s. Accessed on April 29th, 2011.

(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Borrowed from Latin Thōmās m, from Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs).

• IPA^(key): /txoːˈmɑs/

Thōmas m

1. (biblical) Thomas
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 20:24

     Witodlice Thomas, an of þam twelfum, þe ys gecweden Didimus, þæt ys Gelicost, on ure geþeode, he næs mid him, þa se Haelend com

     Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Thomas c (genitive Thomas)

1. a male given name of popular usage, variant of Tomas

• Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, →ISBN
• [7] Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, →ISBN: 59 976 males with the given name Thomas (compared to 33 505 named Tomas) living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 1960s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.