Origin of the name

The name Tel Aviv in Hebrew means “Hill (tel) of Spring (aviv)", the title given by Nahum Sokolov to his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl’s book Altneuland (German: “Old-new-land"). The Hebrew word aviv means spring (the season).

There is an account that Sokolov came up with the Hebrew title “Tel Aviv” to allude to the destruction of the ancient Jewish state and its hoped-for restoration: aviv = “spring” to symbolize renewal; and tel to symbolize the destruction of the ancient state, following not the usual Hebrew meaning of the word “tel” but its use in archaeology, meaning “mound of accumulated ruins".

Sokolov took the name from the Book of Ezekiel, 3:15 : “Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.” (The spelling in the King James bible is Telabib [2]). The Aviv referred to is possibly an indirect reference to a Mesopotamian god or goddess believed to bring forth the season of spring.