In the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, eight people entered the ark: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their sons’ wives.
Genesis names Noah’s sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The account describes the family as the human survivors preserved through the Flood, rather than identifying any other passengers by name.
The number eight comes from the combined family group: Noah and his wife make two people, the three sons bring the total to five, and the sons’ three wives bring it to eight. Some later traditions discuss the women in more detail, but Genesis does not give their names.
This figure is sometimes confused with the numbers of animals brought aboard. Those animal counts vary within the Genesis narrative, while the human total is consistently presented in later summaries as eight. The New Testament also refers to “eight souls” being saved through water in 1 Peter 3:20.