Azariah is a personal name meaning 'YHWH has helped' or 'YHWH has aided,' combining the divine name with a verb for helping. This Azariah was one of Daniel's three companions in Babylonian exile, better known by his Babylonian name Abednego. The Babylonians gave the four young Jewish nobles new names to assimilate them: Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach, and Azariah became Abednego. The irony is profound: Azariah's Hebrew name proclaimed 'YHWH has helped,' a confession of faith in Israel's God, yet in Babylon he was renamed after a pagan deity. Despite this forced renaming, Azariah/Abednego remained faithful, refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image and surviving the fiery furnace.