Genesis 14:2 names him as the Kena'ani (Canaanite) king of Admah who fought in the War of the Kings.
The name means "father's tooth", which is an odd sort of name. The explanation may be, somewhat obscurely, that Shen (שן) = "tooth", and that ivory comes from the teeth of various royal animals, notably the elephant, hippo, rhino (cf 1 Kings 10:18 and Songs 5:14, where "shen" is used to mean "ivory"; also Amos 3:15 and Psalm 45:9). For the same word to mean "tooth" and "ivory" there has to be a link to one of these animals, and the linking of that animal name with the word "father" invariably implies a god-link. Buffalo-horn then, as the original bull-god? Or do we go even further back, and presume the woolly mammoth? Given that Shin-Av was king of Admah and that Adam, the eponymous ancestor, was also said to be the aboriginal Man...
All of which is vaguely plausible, and certainly a very worthy attempt to justify this meaning. But what if the pointing were a deliberate evasion, and the name was really Sin-Av - "my father is the Babylonian moon-god"? Rather more likely, don't you think? For fuller details, see my page on Sin, Tsin.
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