Tal Ilan's Palestinian name database — confirming Gospel names match authentic first-century Palestinian onomastics

In 2002, Tal Ilan (Israeli scholar) published a lexicon cataloging names from 330 BC to 200 AD found in Palestinian documents, ossuaries, and papyri — over 3,000 names. The most common male names in first-century Palestine included Simon (15% of men) and Joseph. When common names appeared, qualifiers were used (e.g., Simon of Cyrene, Simon son of Jonah). People often had both Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek names. Richard Bauckham compared Ilan's statistical distribution to the names in the four Gospels and found they match well — both in frequency and the manner of qualification. The fit is best when all four Gospels are combined for the largest sample.