More specifically, what’s in Noah’s name? Much, says Michael Morales in The Tabernacle Pre-Figured (164-7).

“The keys words of [Genesis] 6.5-8 form a paranomastic allusion to the name of Noah (nch): ‘regretted’ (nacham) 6.6, 7 (which meaning is contrasted to its use in 5.29 as ‘relief, comfort’); ‘wipe out’ (machah) 6.7; and ‘favor, grace’ (chen) 6.8.” The last is especially brilliant, because the central statement that “Noah found grace” is surrounded by a palindrome: nch found chn.

The etymology given at his birth - as “rest-bringer” - echoes in the grace he receives (6:8), the resting (tnch) of the ark (8:4), the dove who finds no rest (mnuch, 8.9) and the pacifying aroma of the sacrifice (8:21), a phrase “replete with poetic assonance.”

Morales hears an allusion back to Enoch in Noah’s name: chanak walked with God, as nch would later do. This connection is brought out strongly in 6:9, where the last three letters of the clause “Noah walked” spell out Enoch’s name backwards: CH-N-K.

So righteous is Noah that his name becomes almost a synonym for divine fiat. 6:22 states “thus did Noah,” the first two words being kn ‘asah; the sentence ends with a chiastic inversion of that phrase that emphasizes the obedience of Noah and placing Noah’s name last: wy’as nch. Kn is used throughout Genesis 1 to describe “creation’s irresistible obedience to the divine word”: God speaks and “thus” it is. So with Noah; God speaks and “thus he did”; or, to say the same thing, “God speaks and Noah did.” Noah is the “thus” of the divine command (168). 

We might also note, of course, the advance from Genesis 1. At the beginning, Yahweh speaks and no human has to obey for things to get done. With Noah, Yahweh speaks and the animated dust that is Noah makes a new creation.