These honorifics are frequently found on gravestones, on memorial walls inside the sanctuary of synagogues, in speeches, and in writing such as in obituaries.
The single most common funerary salutation in Jewish inscriptions from Rome in the 3rd and 4th centuries is ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἡ κοιμήσις αὐτοῦ/αὐτῆς/σοῦ May he/she/you rest in peace.
[10] In the Babylonian Talmud, it is mentioned that a person should say this expression about his dead father, in addition to the phrase "[May] I be the atonement of his resting-place.
The term עליו השלום did not appear in Hebrew literature until the early Rishonic period, a century after its introduction in Judeo-Arabic.
The phrase is more common in Islamic literature as an honorific for saints, and over time in Hebrew it came to predominate over עבד השם (the classical Hebrew honorific for biblical figures), and by 1600 usage of עבד השם had disappeared, leaving עליו השלום (or its feminine/plural forms) as the only expansion of ע"ה.
[12] The honorific May HaShem avenge his/her blood is generally used for an individual who are considered to have been murdered through martyrdom or other acts of anti-Semitism such as pogroms, genocide, or terrorist attacks.
The term is also applied to any innocent Jew killed, whether for anti-Semitic reasons or others; for example, Shira Banki, a teenager murdered in the 2015 Jerusalem Pride Parade, is referred to as Shira Banki HY"D by the Israeli LGBTQ community.
It is customary to sign the tombstones with the initials תַּנְצְבָ"ה (תְּהִי נִשְׁמָתוֹ צְרוּרָה בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים (according to the language of the verse:[17] May his soul be bound in the bond of life.).
This expression stems from the belief that a righteous person who passes to the next world can serve as an advocate before God for his remaining community.
Other acronyms of this type are נבג"מ (נשמתו בגנזי מרומים; his soul in the heavenly vineyards) and נלב"ע (נפטר לבית עולמו; died to his world).
In the course of time, additional versions of the above expressions were created, for example: "זכר צדיק וקדוש לברכה"; "may the memory of the righteous and holy be a blessing" (ZTVK"L; זצוק״ל), or "זכר צדיק וקדוש לברכה לחיי העולם הבא"; "may the memory of the righteous and holy be a blessing for the life of the world to come" (זצוקללה״ה).
Another phrase is "Shem reshaim yirkav" שם רשעים ירקב, "the name of the wicked will rot".