The Tetragrammaton and Breathing

So, have you heard the one about how the Hebrew name for God, often spelled in English YHWH, is related to the sound of breathing? Google it and you'll find people talking about it, both affirming it and critically examining it. 

I myself am not sure what to make of this idea. 

Well, let me clarify. I don't take the idea seriously as an accurate explanation for the origins of the name YHWH. There is nothing in the Bible or, as far as I can tell, Second Temple Judaism reflecting this idea relating God's name to breathing. There were, in fact, ancient ideas explaining the meaning of God's name, but not in relation to breathing. The Bible itself has an explanation, in the revelation to Moses at the bush, when the Name is explained in reference to the verb "to be" (hayah in Hebrew). And I think most scholars would accept that there is indeed a relationship between the name YHWH and the Hebrew verb for being. Nothing about breathing here. (Of course, you can't "be" if you don't breathe, but anyway.) 

But I am curious about the origins of this connection to breathing. Of course, I am quite certain that most people who repeat this explanation for God's name have done no research on the matter. I just heard this idea promoted in church a couple weeks ago, and I think the guy who said it was telling us that this is an ancient idea, the correct explanation for the origins of the name—which is clearly wrong. But, still, where did the idea come from? Who first said it? 

I don't know, and I'm not going to do any research right now on it, other than googling. That has led me to a Nooma video by Rob Bell, called "Breathe," published I think in 2005 or so. And Bell does indeed mention this idea at about the 4:00 mark, and he attributes it to "the ancient rabbis." 

Is Bell right? I don't know. As my teachers at Hebrew Union often said, rabbinic literature is a vast corpus with many viewpoints. I could imagine something in rabbinic literature, or lets say, the post-rabbinic Jewish mystical tradition, connecting the Tetragrammaton to breath—not necessarily as an attempt at explaining the origins of the Name, but as an attempt to give (further) mystical meaning to the Name. I could imagine this idea being mentioned by more recent rabbis, and thence entering Christian discourse. But this is all just guesswork. I have only ever actually encountered the idea in very recent Christian popular speakers. 

I have looked in Wilkinson's book on the Tetragrammaton and came up empty (and Meyer's book). I'll report back if I discover more.