The name "Jehovah" is one of the translations or, more precisely, the transliterations of the name of the biblical god. It is based on his name in the Hebrew scriptures, where it was written as יהוה, which is also known as the Tetragrammaton. This word means the "four letters", and is only used for the name of the biblical God. The four letters are YHWH (Hebrew: yod, he, waw, he) or HWHY, as Hebrew writing is written from right to left.

The name is not spoken by Jews, today, because they believe it is too holy for humans to pronounce. In fact, they have not pronounced the name for centuries, and today no one knows the correct pronunciation. It has been forgotten and lost. Jewish people now say "Adonai" or "Ha Shem" (Hebrew for The Name) so that they do not speak the actual name. Thus, other translations of the Bible may use "The Eternal" where the original has the tetragrammaton.

Others believe that the biblical god wanted his name to be spoken, and that is why the name appears in the Hebrew scriptures about seven thousand times. Additionally, a short name appears, transliterated as "Jah" or "Yah" (יה), either alone, or part of another name. So, in ancient times, the name of the biblical God was often spoken, and the holy scriptures say that the biblical God never changes. Malachi 3:6 says, "For I am Jehovah; I do not change.", so if he wanted us to speak his name in ancient times, we should believe that he wants us to speak his name today.

I wrote that "Jehovah" is one of the transliterations of the Hebrew letters, so what are the others, and why would someone decide to use

Jehovah instead of one of the others? Since no one knows how to pronounce the name, all pronunciation must be approximations, and more or less accurate. No pronunciation will be correct. Others would be "Yehowah", or "Yahweh" and many more. As there are many languages and all languages would have one or more pronunciations, many transliterations are possible. However, scholars usually say that "Yahweh" would be the closest. Jehovah came from Latin, when the letters "J" and "I" were the same, with the vowels of the Hebrew words "Adonai" (Lord) or "Elohim" (God) inserted between the letters of the tetragrammaton. Then, the letter "J" began to be pronounced the same as today, and in English it came to be pronounced as Jehovah, and that is the most common pronunciation in English and the one used on this site. However, all of these are just approximations.

Does this approximation show respect for Jehovah? I think it does, and there is a good reason to believe that. The son of Jehovah is named "Jesus", but this is his name in English, not his real name. His real name was Hebrew - "Yehoshuah" or "Yeshuah", and was changed in Greek to "Hiesus" (’Ιησους) and to "Jesus" in other languages, including English. In other words, the Holy Scriptures themselves, during the time of the apostles, used Greek approximations in the earliest writings for the name of Jesus our Savior, and these writings show the greatest respect for him. I believe that removing God’s name where it was originally is the true sign of disrespect.

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