The Hebrew name Abinadab is a compound of ab (father) and nadab (willing, generous, noble). It designates several individuals in the Old Testament who bore this honorable name meaning 'my father is noble' or 'my father is generous.'
Abinadab appears as the name of several significant men in Israel's history. The most notable is the man of Kiriath-jearim in whose house the ark of the covenant rested for twenty years (1 Samuel 7:1). His son Eleazar was consecrated to care for it. Another Abinadab was the second son of Jesse (1 Samuel 16:8), and a third was a son of King Saul who died at Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:2). The name's meaning — 'my father is noble' — reflects the Hebrew ideal of noble ancestry and generous character as marks of divine blessing.