In Genesis, Shem is listed first in the family heading for Noah’s sons after the Flood.
Genesis 9:18 names Shem, Ham, and Japheth as Noah’s sons. Genesis 10 then introduces the “sons of Noah” in the same order, presenting the peoples and genealogies associated with them. Shem is therefore the first name in the biblical listing, although the text also discusses the brothers in other sequences.
Shem is especially important in the biblical genealogical structure because Genesis 11 traces his line to Abram, later called Abraham. The term “Semitic,” used in modern historical and linguistic contexts, was derived from Shem’s name, though modern scholarship does not treat the biblical genealogy as a simple scientific classification of all peoples who speak Semitic languages.
A common mix-up is to answer Japheth because Genesis later gives him a prominent blessing, or Ham because of the episode involving Noah’s drunkenness. The question concerns the order of names in Genesis, not which son was oldest or most important.