Hakkoz: a priestly family, and the ancestor it is named after, holding the seventh turn of duty at the temple.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The name is the ordinary Hebrew word for a thorn (קוֹץ) with the word "the" fastened to the front, so it sounds roughly like "The Thorn." The Bible never explains why the family was called that, and names built from plants and animals are common enough in Hebrew that no character judgment should be read out of it.
The name shows up in three settings, and together they follow one priestly family across a long stretch of history:
The list of temple duty rosters assigns Hakkoz the seventh of twenty-four turns of service.
Among the priests who came back from exile, the family claiming descent from Hakkoz could not produce the written record to prove it, and was kept from priestly duty until the question could be settled.
Not long after, a man named Meremoth, grandson of Hakkoz, is rebuilding two stretches of Jerusalem's wall, which suggests the family was back in good standing.
English versions make this harder to follow than it needs to be. Older translations write "Hakkoz" in Chronicles but "Koz" in Ezra and Nehemiah, so one family reads as two; newer ones usually keep "Hakkoz" everywhere.
Nuances
1aHakkoz as the seventh of the twenty-four turns of priestly duty at the temple
1Ch 24:10
1bthe family of Hakkoz among the returning priests whose written proof of priestly descent could not be found
Ezr 2:61Neh 7:63
1cHakkoz named as the grandfather of Meremoth, one of the men who rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem
Neh 3:4Neh 3:21
2
Koz: a man in the family lists of Judah, named as the father of Anub and Zobebah.
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This Koz appears exactly once, in a run of Judah's family lines, where he fathers Anub and Zobebah and is tied to the clans of Aharhel. Nothing else is said about him and no later passage picks him up.
His name is written without the word "the" that is attached to the priestly Hakkoz, and he stands in Judah's line rather than a priestly one, which is why the lexicons treat the two as different men who happen to share a name. The word behind the name is still the everyday Hebrew word for a thorn (קוֹץ).
Older English Bibles spell him "Coz" and newer ones "Koz"; both are the same name.
The Hebrew name is the ordinary word for a thorn with the word "the" attached, so it reads like a description rather than a bare label.1Ch 24:10Ezr 2:61
Because the Hebrew keeps the same spelling in every priestly passage, it is plain in the original that the duty roster, the returning family and Meremoth's grandfather are one name.Neh 3:4Neh 7:63
Both
Both name the priestly family that held the seventh turn of temple duty and that Meremoth belonged to.1Ch 24:10Neh 3:21
Only Hakkoz
In English "Hakkoz" is only an unfamiliar foreign name and carries no meaning at all.
The single fixed English spelling makes the name look like one unchanging form, though Hebrew writes the Judahite man's name without the attached "the".
The standard lexica keep two proper names under this spelling. BDB (s.v. קוֹץ, pp. 880-881) and HALOT distinguish the Judahite קוֹץ of 1 Chronicles 4:8, written without the article, from the priestly הַקּוֹץ of 1 Chronicles 24:10;Ezra 2:61;Nehemiah 3:4, 21; 7:63, where the article is treated as part of the name; DCH divides the field the same way, and all three keep both names separate from the botanical noun קוֹץ "thorn". Commentators on 1 Chronicles 24 (Japhet; Williamson) read the twenty-four course list as reflecting a Second Temple ordering of the priesthood rather than a straightforwardly Davidic institution, which is what permits the seventh course, Hakkoz, to be identified with the family named at Ezra 2:61 and Nehemiah 7:63. On Ezra 2:61-63 Williamson and Blenkinsopp take the exclusion of the sons of Habaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai as provisional, suspended on a decision by Urim and Thummim, and both observe that Meremoth ben Uriah ben Hakkoz of Nehemiah 3:4, 21, very probably the Meremoth entrusted with the temple vessels at Ezra 8:33, shows the house active in Jerusalem, whether reinstated or never in fact deprived. The family is widely identified with the Ἀκκώς of 1 Maccabees 8:17, ancestor of the envoy Eupolemus, and the twenty-four courses including Hakkoz are attested in later Jewish course lists. The reference of neither name is in dispute; nothing is known of the Judahite Koz beyond his single verse.
In-depth research
This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.
Sources
BDB, s.v. קוֹץ, 880-881lexicon
HALOT, s.v. קוֹץ / הַקּוֹץlexicon
D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. קוֹץlexicon
S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (Old Testament Library, 1993), 425-432commentary
H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles (New Century Bible Commentary, 1982)commentary
H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985), 35-36, 204-205commentary
J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah (Old Testament Library, 1988), 92-93, 232-234commentary
J. M. Myers, Ezra, Nehemiah (Anchor Bible 14, 1965)commentary
J. A. Goldstein, I Maccabees (Anchor Bible 41, 1976), 352-353commentary