In the biblical account of Noah's Ark, Shem is listed first among Noah's three sons.
Genesis names Noah's sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The three men enter the ark with Noah and their wives, and they become the ancestors from whom the post-Flood human world is described as developing in the biblical genealogy.
The order of names is not always a simple age ranking. Genesis 10 and 11 develop separate genealogical lines from the three brothers, while later passages give Shem a particularly prominent place in the ancestry leading toward Abraham. For that reason, readers should not assume that every list is intended only as a birth-order statement.
Shem is also the source of the traditional term “Semitic” through later historical usage, although modern linguistic classification is more complex than a direct label for all descendants. The ark narrative itself securely supplies the name order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.