[Red Badger]

And he was the ONLY one ever with that name?..................

[Rurudyne]

Well, as it meant to indicate “let Baal contend with him” so it was probably rare before Gideon.

But, as you say, others may have been named such.

That said, when a name pops up in use that has not popped up before it does remove the objection some may raise that against the name even being used at all, as a backhanded way to challenge the existence of the man.

[Reily]

I would hope there are indexes of names discovered by archaeology for the different time periods. That way you might have some physical evidence of how common the name was.