³ Isaiah said: “Look! The maiden herself will actually become pregnant, and she is giving birth to a son, and she will certainly call his name Immanuel. . . . Before the boy will know how to reject the bad and choose the good, the ground of whose two kings you are feeling a sickening dread [Syria and Israel] will be left entirely.” (Isa. 7:14, 16) The first part of that prophecy is often applied to the birth of the Messiah, and rightly so. (Matt. 1:23) However, since the “two kings,” the king of Syria and the king of Israel, were no longer a threat to Judah in the first century C.E., the prophecy about Immanuel must have had an initial fulfillment in Isaiah’s day.

⁴ Soon after Isaiah made that remarkable announcement, his wife became pregnant and bore him a son named Maher-shalal-hash-baz. One possibility is that this child was the “Immanuel” referred to by Isaiah.a In Bible times, an infant might be given one name at birth, perhaps to commemorate a special event, but be known by his parents and relatives by another name. (2 Sam. 12:24, 25) There is no evidence that Jesus was ever addressed by the name Immanuel.​—Read Isaiah 7:14; 8:3, 4.