LuciferThe word Lucifer is from the Latin lucem ferre, which...

Lucifer

The word Lucifer is from the Latin lucem ferre, which means "light-bearer". Formerly, it was often used as a name for the Morning Star, which is the planet Venus's appearance in the pre-dawn sky. The Bible does not refer to Lucifer as the devil or Satan at all. Ever. In Isaiah, the king of Babylon (who was viewed as a huge asshole) is called "the shining one". Later Christian thinkers, among them St. Augustine, used this example and decided, purely for the hell of it (ha, ha), to apply the name Lucifer to the chief Biblical bad guy, whom we all know and love as THE DEVIL.

In the Latin New Testament, Peter uses Lucifer as a name for the Morning Star and later in the Book of Revelation, Jesus even refers to himself as the Morning Star (but not directly as Lucifer because, you know, AWKWARD).

But anyhoo, Lucifer is not really the name of a person, much less a devil. A handful of people just invented a meaning and everyone else decided it was true—exactly like everything else we believe in.