Shem is named first among Noah’s three sons in the Genesis genealogy.
Genesis 5:32 lists Noah’s sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis 6:10 repeats that order when describing Noah’s family before the flood. Shem is also the ancestor from whom the genealogy leading to Abraham is traced in Genesis 11.
The order of names is not always the same as the order used in every later passage. Genesis 10, often called the Table of Nations, arranges the descendants by broader narrative and geographical concerns rather than simply repeating the earlier list. This can make the family order seem inconsistent to readers.
Shem’s name is also associated with the biblical term “Semitic” in later scholarly usage, although that modern linguistic label covers languages and peoples through historical classification rather than providing a simple one-to-one family identification. The question here concerns the explicit order in Genesis, where Shem appears before Ham and Japheth.