Have you ever noticed that if you put alot of western, anglo first names backwards they come out seeming like either middle eastern names, Israeli names, or a name you'd see in the Bible? Examples:
James - Semaj
Deborah - Harobed
Denise - Esined
Michael - Leachim
Martin - Nitram
Miles - Selim
You can really go on and on with this. No wonder western and eastern cultures think the other is backward. Even the names are that way. I wonder if you took alot of names from the eastern hemisphere and flipped them if they would seem western. Hmmmmmm.
I bet a good portion of this has to do with the different ways biblical era names descended into Arabic and and English. Many biblical names exist in multiple languages, often in VERY different ways. Try looking up all the variants of James/Jacob.