The tughra (stylized signature) of Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire. Influenced by Arabic culture, Ottoman rulers had stylized their names in the Arabic way, as depicted in this signature.

Old Arabic names are based on a long naming system; most Arabs do not simply have given/middle/family names, but a full chain of names. This system is in use throughout the Arab world. Because of the importance of the Arabic language in Islam, a large majority of the world's Muslims use Arabic names (ism), but it is not common outside the Arab world to employ the full naming conventions described below.

Structure of the Arabic name

Ism (Arabic: اسم)

The main name of an Arab person is the ism, his or her personal name (e.g. "Kareem" or "Fatimah"). Most Arabic names are originally Arabic words with a meaning, usually signalling the good character of the person. Karīm means "generous", maħmūd means "praiseworthy", and both words are employed as adjectives and nouns in regular language. Arab newspapers sometimes try to avoid confusion by placing names in brackets or between quotation marks. Generally, context and grammar will indicate how the word is being used, but foreign students of Arabic may initially have trouble with this.

Muslim practices

A common form of Muslim Arab names is the combination of `abd (English: slave) followed by another word (X), in the form `abd X (English: slave of X), where X is a word describing God (Arabic: Allah), often one of the Names of God in the Qur'an. A particularly common example is Abdullah (Arabic: عبد الله / English: Slave of God). The female version is in the form amah X, so the female version of Abdullah is Amatullah. All the above practice is followed when a person is named from the 99 names of Allah, there is no need for ‘abd when using other names or from prophet's names.

Christian practices

To an extent, most Christian Arabs have names that are indistinguishable from those of their Muslim neighbors, but Christian Arabs rarely or never use specifically Muslim names such as Mohammed. There are also Arabic versions of Christian names (e.g. saints' names), and names of Greek, Armenian, or Assyrian / Aramaic origin. Adoption of European names, especially French and Greek ones (to the lesser extent, Spanish ones in Morocco), has been a centuries-long convention for Arab Christians—especially (but not only) in the Levant. Thus, George Habash, Charles Helou, Camille Chamoun, etc. Other examples of exclusively names of Arab Christians are in honor of Jesus Christ, like Abd Yasu (servant of Jesus; the feminine form, Amat Yasu), Abd (Amat) al-Masih (servant of the Messiah), Maryam Umm Yasu (Mary, mother of Jesus), Yusef Abu Yasu (Joseph, father of Jesus), Yasu ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary), Yasu ibn Yusef (Jesus, son of Joseph), and Yasu Ullah (Jesus belongs to God). The name Abdullah, meaning simply servant of God, is also used by Christians.

Kunya كنية

Often, a kunyah referring to the person's first-born son is used as a substitute for the ism: for example, أبو كريم "Abu Karim" for "father of Karim", and أم كريم "Umm Karim", "mother of Karim". It can refer to the person's first-born son. The kunya precedes the ism when not replacing it. (Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, is widely known within the Arab world by his kunya, "Abu-Mazen".)

Nasab نسب

The nasab is a patronymic or series of patronymics. It indicates the person's heritage by the word ابن ibn (sometimes bin) which means "son", and bint, "daughter". Thus ابن خلدون Ibn Khaldun means "son of Khaldun" (Khaldun is the father's ism, or proper name—or, in this particular case, the proper name of a remote ancestor). Several nasab can follow in a chain, to trace a person's ancestry backwards in time. This was important in the tribally based society of the ancient Arabs, both for purposes of identification and for social and political interaction. In modern Arabic, it is very common for people to omit the ibn or bint in normal conversation, just using the names themselves.

Laqab لقب

The laqab is intended as a description of the person. So, for example, in the name of the famous Abbasid Caliph Haroun al-Rashid (of A Thousand and One Nights fame), Haa'roon is the Arabic form for Aaron, and "al-Rashid" means "the righteous" or "the rightly-guided".

Nisbah نسبة

The nisbah describes a person's occupation, geographic home area, or descent (tribe, family, etc.). It will follow a family through several generations, and it is for example common to find people with the name al-miṣrī (the Egyptian, or rather "of Egypt") in many places in the Middle East, despite the fact that their families may have resided outside Egypt for several generations. The nisbah, among the components of the Arabic name, perhaps most closely resembles the Western surname.

Example

ابو كريم محمد الجميل بن نضال بن عبد العزيز الفلسطيني

Abu Kareem Muhammad al-Jameel ibn Nidh'aal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filisteeni

"ʼabū karīmi muḥammadu-l-jamīlu-bnu niḍāli-bni ʻabdi-l-ʻazīzi-l-filisṭīnī"

This means, in translation:

"Father-of-Kareem, Muhammad, jamil, son of Nidal, son of Abdulaziz, the Palestinian"

(Kareem means generous, muhammad means praised, jamīl means beautiful; azīz means Magnificent, and it is one of the 99 names of God.)

Abu Kareem is a kunya, Muhammad is the person's proper name (ism), al-Jamil is a laqab, Nidal is his father (a nasab), Abdulaziz his grandfather (second-generation nasab) and "al-Filistini" is his family nisbah. Normally, this person would simply be referred to as "Muhammad" or "Abu Kareem", but to signify respect or to specify which Mohammad one is speaking about (namely, the beautiful son of Nidal and grandson of Abdulaziz), the name could be lengthened as above, to the extent necessary or desired.

Westernization of Arabic naming practices and names

Many Arabic countries have now adopted a Westernized way of naming. This is the case for example in the Levant and Maghreb countries where French conventions are followed, and it is rapidly gaining ground elsewhere.

Also, many Arabs adapt to Western conventions for practical purposes when travelling or when residing in Western countries, constructing a given name/family name model out of their full Arab name, to fit Western expectations and/or visa applications or other official forms and documents. The reverse side to this is the surprise of many Westerners when asked to supply their first name, second name, father's name, and family name in some Arab visa applications.

The Westernization of an Arab name may require transliteration. Often, one name may be transliterated in several ways (Abdul Rahman, Abdoul Rahman, Abdur Rahman, Abdurahman, Abd al-Rahman, or Abd ar-Rahman), as there is no single accepted Arabic transliteration system. A single individual may try out several ways of transliterating his or her name, producing even greater inconsistency. This has resulted in confusion on the part of governments, security agencies, airlines and other: for example, especially since 9/11, persons with names written similarly to those of suspected terrorists have been detained.

Common mistakes

Westerners often make these mistakes:

Separating "the X of Y" word combinations (see idafa):
- With "Abdul": Arabic names may be written "Abdul (something)", but "Abdul" means "servant of the" and is not, by itself, a name. Thus for example, to address Abdul Rahman bin Omar al-Ahmad by his given name, one must say "Abdul Rahman", not merely "Abdul". If he introduces himself as "Abdul Rahman" (which means "the servant of the Merciful"), one must not say "Mr. Rahman" (as "Rahman" is not a family name but part of his (theophoric) personal name); instead it would be Mr. Ahmad, being the family name).
- People not understanding Arabic sandhi in genitive constructions: Habību-llāh = "beloved (Habīb) of (ul^{[verification needed]}) God (Allāh)"; here a person may in error report the man's name as 'forename "Habib", surname "Ullah"'. Likewise, people may confuse a name such as Jalālu-d-dīn ("The Majesty of the Religion") as being "Jalal Uddin", or "Mr. Uddin", when "Uddin" is not a surname, but the second half of a two-word name (the desinence -u of the construct state nominative, plus the article, appearing as -d-, plus the genitive dīn[i]). To add to the confusion, some immigrants to Western countries have adopted Uddin as a surname, although it is grammatically incorrect in Arabic outside the context of the associated "first name". Even Indian Muslims commit the same error. If a person's name is Abd-ul-Rahim (Servant of the Merciful), his companions may call him as Mr Abdul (Servant of) erroneously which will sound quite odd to a native speaker of Arabic.
Confusing "`alā'" with "Allah": Some Muslim names include the Arabic word `alā' علاء = "nobility". (Here, ` represents the ayin sound, the voiced pharyngeal fricative, and ' represents the hamza sound, the glottal stop, and L is spelled and pronounced once. In Allāh, L is spelled twice and pronounced separately.) In Arabic pronunciation, `alā and Allāh are clearly different. But Europeans, Iranians, and Indians often cannot pronounce some Arabic sounds as precisely, and tend to pronounce these two names the same. For example, the Muslim male name `Alā'-ad-dīn = "the nobility of the religion" is often misspelt as Allah-ad-din. (This name is known to English speakers as Aladdin.) Because these two words are different, there is really a given name of a male Arab "`Ala' Allah" (Aliullah), meaning "the nobility of God."
Grammar errors: These can result from differences between Arabic grammar and the grammar of some other languages. Arabic forms noun compounds in the opposite order from Indo-Iranian languages. For example, during the war in Afghanistan in 2002, a BBC team found in Kabul an internal refugee whose name they stated as "Allah Muhammad". This may be a misspelling, as described in the previous paragraph, but if not, by the rules of Arabic grammar, this name means "the Allah who belongs to Muhammad", which is not acceptable as a man's name and is ideally and logically wrong; however, by the rules of Iranian and most Indian languages this name means "Muhammad who belongs to Allah", which is acceptable; the Arabic equivalent is "Muhammad Ullah". Most Afghans speak Iranian languages. Such Arabic-and-Iranian or Arabic-and-Indian mixed-language compound names are not uncommon in Afghanistan, Iran, and Tajikistan. Compare the Pakistani / Indian name "Allah Ditta"^[1].

Modern and regional variations

While the ibn/bin prefix is still commonly used in names, its use is declining; in some places, this prefix is only used in government interactions, and in other places it is dropped altogether. In Mauritania, its usage is still common, but ever since the colonial era many people have preferred the dialectal form ould (ولد, pronounced [ˈwulː]).
Syria retains a heavy Turkish influence, which is reflected in commonly found names of Turkish and Kurdish origin; e.g. Adib al-Shishakli.
Maghribi names are quite distinctive due to heavy Berber (tamazight), French, and some Italian (in Libya) and Spanish (in Morocco) influences. Names of Spanish influence gave back some of the names of the Arabic influence in Spain: Fatima, Omar, Soraya, and Zoraida. And these names are both found in Moroccan Muslims and Spanish-speaking Moroccan Roman Catholic Christians.
Lebanon has many names of Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish and French origin.
Iraq has a sizable number of people with names of Persian, Turkish and Kurdish origin.
Malay names – Among the Malays and other Muslim-majority races in Malaysia and Singapore, the name Mohammed or Muhammad (often abbreviated to Mohd.) commonly precedes a male Muslim's given name, followed by the word "bin" and his father's name, for example Muhammad Amin bin Hashim. For a female Muslim it is "binti". If the person has performed the Hajj, the honorific "Haji" would be prefixed to his name, for example Haji Muhammad Amin bin Hashim, or even Haji Muhammad Amin bin Haji Hashim. Persons claiming descent from Prophet Muhammad may carry the title "Syed" or "Sheikh" ("Sharifah" or "Siti" for females) before their name and a family name may follow the personal name, for example Syed Muhammad Amin al-Habshi bin Syed Hashim al-Habshi.
In Afghanistan, persons claiming to be related to the prophet are called Sayeds, and all the males in the family carry the title of Mir, rather than the last name of Hashimi or Hashem. People belonging to this group will have either the last name Hashimi or have the title Mir in front of their names, but not both. An example of an Afghan who claims to trace their lineage to the prophet will be Mir Abdul Rahman, Mir being the title linking them to the Prophet Muhammad but not being a part of their first name, which would be Abdul Rahman. Afghan women who are Sayeds carry no title in front of their names; some carry the last name Hashimi, which indicates their lineage and is kept by many even after marriage, as in Islam women are not to take their husband's last name.
In Iran and also Afghanistan, persons claiming to be related to the prophet have Sayed in their name, often as a prefix.
Many Jews of Temani, Mizrahi and Arabicized Sephardi extraction often maintain Arab surnames and adopt Arab names common to Arab Jews, even in the West; e.g. Paula Abdul and Loolwa Khazzoom.
In Western China, officials will, when spelling a native name in Chinese characters, sometimes represent "Muhammad" by the Chinese character 馬/马 "mǎ", which means "horse".
Sometimes Arabic names are used by people people who have no origins in the Middle East nor adhere to Islam. Examples are: Ayesha, Fatima(see each name for information as to why). In contrast, Omar (e.g. Omar Bradley) is not only an Arabic, but also a biblical Hebrew, name.

Arab family naming convention=

In Arabic culture a person's ancestry and his/her family name are very important. An example is explained below.

Assume a man has the name of Saleh walud Tariq walud Khalid Al-Fulan.

Saleh is his personal name, and the one that his family and friends would call him by.
Walud translates as "son of", so Tariq is Saleh's father's name.
Walud Khalid means that Tariq is the son of Khalid, making Khalid the grandfather of Saleh.
Al-Fulan would be Saleh's family name.

Hence, Saleh walud Tariq walud Khalid Al-Fulan translates as "Saleh, son of Tariq, son of Khaled; of the family Al-Fulan."

The Arabic for "daughter of" is bint. A woman with the name Fatimah bint Tariq bin Khalid Al-Fulan translates as "Fatimah, daughter of Tariq, son of Khaled; of the family Al-Fulan."

Modern naming convention may drop the word bin or bint as it is already implied, so Saleh's full name would be Saleh Tariq Khalid Al-Fulan and Fatimah's is Fatimah Tariq Khalid Al-Fulan.

If Saleh marries a wife who would keep her maiden name, their children will take Saleh's family name. Therefore, their son Mohammed would be called Mohammed walud Saleh walud Tariq Al-Fulan.

In many non-Arab Muslim communities, the naming convention is further abridged to fit into a three-name nomenclature. Thus the first name is the personal name, the middle name is the father's name and the last name is the family name.

Arabic names and their biblical equivalent

The Arabic names listed below are used in the Arab world, as well as some other Muslim regions, with correspondent Hebrew and English equivalents. They are not necessarily of Arabic origin, though most in fact are. For more information, see also Iranian, Malay, Pakistani, and Turkish names.

Arabic name	Hebrew name	English name
Alyasaʿ	Elišaʿ	Elisha
Andraos
Andrew
Ayyūb	Iyyov, ʾIyyôḇ	Job
Binyāmīn	Benyamin	Benjamin
Dāwūd/Dāvūd	Davīd	David
Efraim	Efráyim	Ephraim
Hārūn	Aharon	Aaron
Hawwā'	Havah	Eve
Ibrāhīm	Avraham	Abraham
Ilyās	Eliyahu	Elijah
ʿĪsà/Yasūʿ	Yehoshua*	Jesus, Joshua
'Isḥāq/Ishak	Yitzhak	Isaac
'Ismāʿīl	Yišmā`êl, Yišma`el	Ishmael
Isrā'īl	Yisraʾel, Yiśrāʾēl	Israel
Jibrīl	Gavriʼel	Gabriel
Jād	Gad	Gad
Maryam	Miriyam	Mary
Mattà	Matatyahu	Matthew
Mikhā'īl	Mikha'el	Michael
Mūsà	Moshé	Moses
Nūḥ	Nóaḥ	Noah
Sārah	Sara	Sarah/Sara
Sulaymān	Shlomo	Solomon
ʿUbaydallāh	Obhádhyah,Ovadiah	Obadiah
Yaʿqūb, Jakub/Jakup	Yaʿqov	Jacob, (James)
Yaḥyà/Yūḥannā**	Yôḥānnān	John
Yūnus	Yona	Jonah
Yūsuf	Yosef	Joseph
Zakariyā	Zekhariah	Zachary or Zechariah

* Yassou is the Arab Christian name of Jesus, while `Īsā is the Muslim version of the name, as used in the Qur'an. Yehoshua is also the origin of Joshua.

** Youhanna is the Arab Christian name of John, while Yahya is the Muslim version of the name, as used in the Qur'an.

External links

6000+ Muslim Names With Meaning
5000+ Arabic Names With Meaning
Searchable lists of Muslim names and meanings
Searchable Muslim baby names online dictionary
Muslim Names and Their Origin
Arabic Nomenclature: A summary guide for beginners. A.F.L. Beeston (Oxford, 1971).
Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices (2003) by Da'ud ibn Auda (David B. Appleton)
Automated recognition of Arabic person names
Baby Names List of Muslim baby names along with their meanings.

References

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