The name of the Lord

Jehovah is said to be a false reading of the Hebrew name of God, Yahweh. This developed from the sacred tetragrammation YHVH. As it was considered too sacred to pronounce, the vowels of Adonai, another word for ‘God’, were inserted to give the substitute name Yahovah. At least, this is the explanation provided in one source. (Room, Adrian: A Dictionary of True Etymologies. London, Boston and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986: 92). Other sources are rather more cautious in their explanations but several point in the same direction.