From Hebrew Naphtali, meaning my struggle, the name of one of Jacob's sons.
Naftali is one of the twelve sons of Jacob in the Hebrew Bible — and therefore one of the twelve tribes of Israel — born to Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel. His name derives from the Hebrew root *pathal*, meaning to twist or wrestle, and his birth is announced by Rachel with the exclamation: "With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed" (*Genesis* 30:8). It is a name born from struggle and triumph, carrying the embodied memory of striving against odds — the same root that gives Jacob his new name, Israel ("one who wrestles with God"), after his encounter at the ford of Jabbok.
In Jacob's blessing of his sons (*Genesis* 49), Naftali is compared to "a swift doe that bears beautiful fawns," an image of graceful speed that became associated with the tribe's territory in the fertile Galilee region of northern Israel. In rabbinic literature, Naftali is celebrated for his eloquence and the swiftness of his tongue as well as his feet — a messenger, a runner, a speaker of beautiful words. The name has remained in use within Jewish communities for millennia, carried by countless generations as a way of maintaining the thread of tribal identity.
In modern Israel, Naftali Bennett served as Prime Minister from 2021 to 2022, bringing the ancient name into twenty-first century political life. It is rare in most Western contexts today, which gives it the particular power of names that carry deep roots and are offered to children as both inheritance and aspiration.