Shem is the first-named son in the usual biblical list of Noah’s three sons.
Genesis 5:32 names Noah’s sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The same three names recur in the Flood narrative, where each son enters the Ark with his wife. Genesis 9 later describes an episode involving Noah and his sons after the floodwaters recede.
In the biblical genealogies, Shem is presented as an ancestor of several peoples and as an ancestor in the line leading to Abraham. The term “Semitic,” used in historical and linguistic contexts, was formed from Shem’s name, although modern scholarship does not treat biblical genealogies as a simple scientific classification of peoples.
A common mix-up is to identify Japheth as the first son because some translations or traditions discuss the brothers in a different order. The name asked for here follows Genesis 5:32’s sequence.