Date
Meaning & History
Possibly means "flowing" from a prosthetic aleph (Hebrew: א) and the Hebrew verb שבל (shobel) "to flow forth" (the source of Shobal), or possibly derived from the noun אֵשׁ ('esh) "fire" and the verb בעל (ba'al) "to be lord (over), to own, to control". In the Old Testament this name belonged to the second son of Benjamin. A known bearer was American pioneer physician Ashbel Smith (1805-1886), a leader in the development of Texas.