the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

The first instance of this word is in Genesis 1:2 “and the earth was formless and void”

היתה is translated as “was”, the past tense of the word “be”, which we are later told is the root of the name Yahweh/Jehovah <3068> ביהוה (which transliterates more closely to Bihivah)

The trouble is that “be” is spelled quite differently and is not the same root word at all.

אהיה (ahyh) is the typical spelling for “to be”, but the word used in Genesis 1:2 is (hytah) היתה

These are not the same word and should not be lumped together in the same Strong Number

These seem to be three separate words, implying that:

1. <1961> needs to be split
2. Jehovah does not in fact mean “I am”