🔼The name Aristarchus in the Bible
The name Aristarchus occurs five times in the New Testament. Aristarchus was a Macedonian of Thessalonica (Acts 27:2) and a traveling companion of Paul. He was manhandled together with Gaius when Demetrius stirred Ephesus into an uproar (Acts 19:29) and accompanied Paul on his subsequent missionary journey to Macedonia and Greece (Acts 20:4). He was with Paul when the ship they sailed on to Rome went down off the coast of Malta (Acts 27:2). Both men made it to Rome, where they both were imprisoned (Colossians 4:10, Philemon 1:24).
🔼Etymology of the name Aristarchus
The name Aristarchus consists of two elements, the first being an adjective derived from the verb αριστευω (aristeuo), meaning to be the best:
The second part of our name comes from the noun αρχη (arche), in this case meaning chief or ruler:
The name Aristarchus means Best Ruler. According to Liddell and Scott (An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon), Aristarchus was also an epithet of Zeus.