Arabic name
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Old Arabic names are based on a very sophisticated naming system: most Arabs do not simply have first/middle/last names, but a full chain of names. This system is in use throughout Arab world. Due to the importance of the Arabic language in Islam, a large majority of the world's Muslims use Arabic first names (ism), but it is not common outside the Arab world to employ the full naming conventions described below.
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Structure of the Arab name
Ism
The main name of an Arab person is the ism, his or her personal name. This could be for example Karim or Mahmud. Most Arabic names are originally Arabic words with a meaning, usually signalling the good character of the person. Indeed, 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, however, context and grammar will easily tell the reader what is part of the name and what is not, but for a foreign student of Arabic, this can initially be troublesome.
- Muslim practices
- A very common form for Muslim Arab names is the combination of "`abd" followed by another word: `abd X means "servant of X" or "slave of X", where X is a word describing Allah (God), often one of the Muslim 99 Names of God. The result is a name such as Abdullah ("Submissive to the God") or Abdurrashid ("Submissive to the Righteous One"). As a result, "Abdul" used by itself means "slave of the" and is not a complete Arabic name.
- Christian practices
- Most Christian Arabs have names that are indistinguishable from those of their Muslim neighbors, but there are also many who retain names of Greek, Armenian, or Syriac origins. Adoption of European names, especially French ones, has been a centuries-long convention for Arab Christians — especially but not only in the Levant. Thus, George Habash, Charles Helou, Camille Chamoun, etc.
Kunya
Often, a kunya referring to the person's first-born son is used as a substitute for the ism: for example, "Abu Karim" for "Father of Karim". The female variant is "Umm", thus "Umm Karim". The kunya precedes the ism when not substituting it.
Nasab
The nasab is a patronymic, or series of patronymics—it indicates the person's heritage by the word ibn (sometimes bin) which means "son". Thus Ibn Khaldun means "son of Khaldun" (Khaldun is the father's ism, or proper name). 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.
Laqab
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). Haroun is the Arabic form for Aaron, and "al-Rashid" means "the righteous" or "the rightly-guided".
Nisba
The nisba 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-mişrī (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 nisba perhaps most closely resembles the Western surname.
Example
- Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filastini
Or, transliterated:
- abū karīm muhammadu-l-jamīl ibn nidāl ibn 'abdi-'azīzi-l-filastīnī
This means, in translation:
- "Father-of-Karim, Muhammad, the beautiful, son of Nidal, son of Abdulaziz, the Palestinian"
- (jamīl means beautiful; azīz means Magnificient, and it is one of the 99 names of God.)
Abu Karim 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-Filastini" is his family nisba. Normally, this person would simply be referred to as "Muhammad" or "Abu Karim", but to signify respect or to specify which Mohammad we are speaking about (namely, the beautiful one from Palestine), the name could be lengthened as above, to the extent necessary or desired.
Westernization of Arab naming practices
It must be noted that many Arabic countries have now adopted a Westernized way of naming. This is the case for example in Lebanon and Maghreb countries where French conventions are followed, and it is rapidly gaining ground elsewhere.
Also, many Arabs adopt to Western conventions for practical purposes when travelling, constructing a first name/surname model out of their full Arab name, to fit Western 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.
Mistakes made by Europeans and other non-Arabs
It is important to note that, while such names may be written "Abdul (something)", "Abdul" means "servant of the" and is not, by itself, a name. Thus, to address Abdul Rahman bin Omar al-Ahmad by his given name, one must say "Abdul Rahman", not merely "Abdul".
Another mistake sometimes happens with names including the Arabic word `alā' علاء = "nobility". (Here, ` represents the ayin sound and ' represents the glottal stop.) In Arabic pronunciation, `alā' and Allāh are clearly different. But Europeans, Iranians, Indians often cannot pronounce some Arabic sounds correctly, and tend to pronounce these two names the same. For example, an internet search will find many instances of the Muslim man's name `Alā'-ed-dīn = "the nobility of the religion" misspelt as Allah-ed-din.
Another mistake can result from differences between Arabic grammar and the grammar of some other languages. Arabic forms noun compounds in the opposite order from Iranian languages. For example, during the recent war in Afghanistan, 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 belong to Muhammad", which is not acceptable as a man's name. But by the rules of Iranian and Indian grammar this name means "the Muhammad who belongs to Allah", which is acceptable; the Arabic equivalent is "Muhammad Ullah". Most Afghans speak Iranian languages. Such mismatched, and grammatically incorrect Arabic and Arabic-Persian compound names are not uncommon in Afghanistan.
Another mistake can result from Europeans not knowing that "Allāh" often becomes "Ullāh" when it is the second part of an Arabic compound, as in Habīb Ullāh = "friend of God"; here a European may in error report the man's name as 'forename "Habib", surname "Ullah"'.
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.
- Syria retains a heavy Turkish influence, which is reflected in commonly found names of Turkish and Kurdish origin; c.f. Adib al-Shishakli.
- Maghribi names are quite distinctive due to heavy Berber (Tamazigh) influences.
- In certain countries like Malaysia and Singapore, male Muslims' names often begin with Mohammed or Muhammed (often abbreviated to Mohd.), continued by the given name, followed by the prefix "bin", then his father's name.
- 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. C.f. Paula Abdul and Loolwa Khazzoom.
- Sometimes Muslim names are used by people who are not Muslims. Examples are: Ayesha, Fatima (see each name for information as to why), and the USA army commander Omar Bradley.
- In Chinese-ruled parts of Central Asia, officials will, when spelling a native name in Chinese characters, sometimes represent "Muhammad" by the Chinese character 馬/马 mǎ meaning "horse".
Arab family naming convention
Muhammad bin Ahmad means Muhammad son of Ahmad similar to Fatima bint Muhammad means Fatima daughter of Ahmad. In Pakistan, and other Muslim countries, bin and bint is dropped. The chosen first name of the child, plus the first name of the father, forms the name of the child. For example:
Muhammad Ahmad
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Ali Muhammad Omar Muhammad
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Hussain Ali Osman Ali Akbar Omar Hassan Omar Yasmeen Omar ----- Abdul Hashim
(Yasmeen Abdul)
In this case, the father's first name becomes his sons' surname and this tradition has been passed down to their sons. The daughter also follows the same custom but after marriage she takes her husband's first name as her second part of her name. In the above case Yasmeen Omar changes her name to Yasmeen Abdul after marrying Abdul Hashim.
See also
External links
- Arabic Nomenclature: A summary guide for beginners. A.F.L. Beeston (Oxford, 1971).
- Page on Arab naming conventionsde:Arabischer Name