Arabic language
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from the Arabic-speaking and also Muslim countries have not had
given/
middle/
family name
In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community.
Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
s but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughout the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
worlds.
Name structure
'
The ' () is the given name, first name, or personal name; e.g. "
Ahmad
Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet.
Etymology
The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...
" or "
Fatimah
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...
". Most Arabic names have meaning as ordinary
adjectives
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...
and
nouns
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
, and are often aspirational of character. For example, ''
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
'' means 'Praiseworthy' and ''
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
'' means 'Exalted' or 'High'.
The syntactic context will generally differentiate the name from the noun/adjective. However Arabic newspapers will occasionally place names in brackets, or quotation marks, to avoid confusion.
Indeed, such is the popularity of the name ''Muhammad'' throughout parts of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, it is often represented by the abbreviation "Md.", "Mohd.", "Muhd.", or just "M.". In
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
and the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, due to its almost ubiquitous use as a first name, a person will often be referred to by their second name:
* Md. Dinar Ibn Raihan
* Mohd. Umair Tanvir
* Md. Osman
'
The ''nasab'' () is a
patronymic
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor.
Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...
or series of patronymics. It indicates the person's heritage by the word ''ibn'' ( "son of", colloquially ''bin'') or ''ibnat'' ("daughter of", also ''bint'', abbreviated ''bte.'').
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (; ar, أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732-808 AH) was an Arab
The Historical Muhammad', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of ...
() means "son of Khaldun". Khaldun is the father's personal name or, in this particular case, the name of a remote ancestor.
Several ''nasab'' names can follow in a chain to trace a person's ancestry backwards in time, as was important in the
tribal
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
society of the ancient Arabs, both for purposes of identification and for socio-political interactions. Today, however, ''ibn'' or ''bint'' is no longer used (unless it is the official naming style in a country, region, etc.: Adnen bin Abdallah). The plural is ' for males and ' for females. However, ' or ' is tribal and encompasses both sexes.
'
The ''laqab'' (), pl. ''alqāb'' () can be translated to English as
agnomen
An ''agnomen'' (; plural: ''agnomina''), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the ''cognomen'' was initially. However, the ''cognomina'' eventually became family names, so ''agnomina'' were needed to distinguish between simila ...
;
cognomen
A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...
; nickname; title, honorific; last name,
surname
In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community.
Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
, family name. The ''laqab'' is typically descriptive of the person.
An example is the
Abbasid caliph
The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.
The family came t ...
Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
(of ''
One Thousand and One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
'' fame), which uses the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
''
al-
( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized as ''el-'', ''il-,'' and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic, is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed de ...
''. ' is the Arabic version of the name ''
Aaron
According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of ...
'' and ' means "the Rightly-Guided".
Another common form of are compounds ending with (), ('of the State'), ('of the Kingdom'), or ('of Islam'). Examples include
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn,
Shams al-Dīn,
Nūr al-Dīn,
Nāṣir al-Dawla,
Niẓām al-Mulk,
Sayf al-Islām.
In ancient Arab societies, use of a ''laqab'' was common, but today is restricted to the surname, or family name, of birth.
'
The () surname could be an everyday name, but is mostly the name of the ancestral tribe, city, country, or any other term used to show relevance. It follows a family through several generations. It most often appears as a demonym, for example , meaning that the person is of Baghdad or descendant of people from Baghdad.
The ''laqab'' and ''nisbah'' are similar in use, and hence, a name rarely contains both.
'
A ''
kunya'' ( ar, كنية, ''kunyah'') is a
teknonym
Teknonymy (from grc-gre, τέκνον, "child" and grc-gre, ὄνομα, label=none, "name"), is the practice of referring to parents by the names of their children. This practice can be found in many different cultures around the world. The term ...
in Arabic names. It is a component of an Arabic name, a type of
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
, in theory referring to the bearer's first-born son or daughter. By extension, it may also have hypothetical or metaphorical references, e.g. in a ''
nom de guerre
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
'' or a nickname, without literally referring to a son or a daughter. For example, Sabri Khalil al-Banna was known as
Abu Nidal
Sabri Khalil al-Banna (May 1937 – 16 August 2002), known by his ''nom de guerre'' Abu Nidal, was the founder of Fatah: The Revolutionary Council, a militant Palestinians, Palestinian splinter group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal ...
, "father of struggle".
Use of a kunya implies a familiar but respectful setting.
A kunya is expressed by the use of ''
abū'' (father) or ''
umm Umm () means ''mother'' in Arabic. It is a common Arabic feminine given name and generic prefix for Semitic place names. It may refer to:
Places Bahrain
*Ain Umm Sujoor, an archaeological site
*Umm an Nasan, an island
* Umm as Sabaan, an islet
Eg ...
'' (mother) in a
genitive construction
In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection ( ...
, i.e. "father of" or "mother of" as an
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
in place of or alongside
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
s in the
Arab world
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
.
A kunya may also be a nickname expressing the attachment of an individual to a certain thing, as in
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...
, "father of the camel foal", given because of this person's kindness towards camels.
Common naming practices
Arab Muslim
A common name-form among Arab Muslims is the prefix ' ("Worshipper", ') combined with the name of
Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
(God), ' ( "Worshipper of God"), or with one of the
epithets of Allah.
As a mark of deference, ' is usually not conjoined with the prophets' names. Nonetheless, such names are accepted in some areas. Its use is not exclusive to Muslims and throughout all Arab countries, the name ''Abdel-Massih'', "Servant of Christ", is a common Christian last name.
Converts to Islam may often continue using the native non-Arabic non-Islamic names that are without any polytheistic connotation, or association.
Arab Christian
To an extent
Arab Christians
Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who l ...
have names indistinguishable from Muslims, except some explicitly Islamic names, e.g. ''Muhammad''. Some common Christian names are:
* Arabic versions of Christian names (e.g. saints' names: ' for ''
Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
'').
* Names of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, and
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
or
Neo-Aramaic origin.
* Use of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an names, especially
French, Greek and, to a lesser extent,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
ones (in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
). This has been a relatively recent centuries-long convention for Christian Arabs, especially in the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
. For example:
Émile Eddé
Émile Eddé ( ar, إميل إدّه, translit=Imīl Iddah; 5 May 1886 – 28 September 1949) was a Lebanese Maronite Christian lawyer and politician who served as the President of Lebanon for twelve days in 1943.
Early life and education
Eddé ...
,
George Habash,
Charles Helou
Charles Helou ( ar, شارل الحلو; 25 September 1913 – 7 January 2001) was a Lebanese politician and President of Lebanon from 1964 to 1970.
Early life and education
Born in Beirut on 25 September 1913, Helou was the scion of a powerf ...
,
Camille Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun OM, ONC ( ar, كميل نمر شمعون, ''Kamīl Sham'ūn''; 3 April 1900 – 7 August 1987) was a Lebanese politician who served as President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. He was one of the country's main Christi ...
.
* Names in honor of Jesus Christ:
: ' ( ) / ' () ("Servant of Jesus")
: ' (masc.) / ' (fem.) ("Servant of the
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
")
: Derivations of ' ("Messiah"): ' ("Most Anointed"), ' ("More Anointed"), ' "Anointed" and ' "Infant Christ". The
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
, ', means "to anoint" (as in ''
masah Masah ( ar, ) refers to the act of ritually cleaning the head or feet with a small amount of water, running the wet hands over the head or feet before '' salat'' ( Islamic prayer). The term shares the same root as the word ''Maseeh'' (Messiah) whi ...
'') and is cognate to the
Hebrew '.
Dynastic or family name
Some people, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, when descendant of a famous ancestor, start their last name with ''Āl'' "family, clan" (), like the
House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...
''Āl Ṣaʻūd'' or
Al ash-Sheikh ("family of the
sheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
"). ''Āl'' is distinct from the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
(). If a reliably-sourced version of the Arabic spelling includes (as a separate graphic word), then this is a case of the definite article, so (capitalised and followed by a space, not a hyphen) should be used. ''Ahl'', which has a similar meaning, is sometimes used and should be used if the Arabic spelling is .
Dynasty membership alone does necessarily imply that the dynastic is used – e.g.
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
.
Example
Muḥammad ibn Salmān ibn Amīn al-Fārisī
:''Ism'' – Muḥammad (proper name, "praised")
:''Nasab'' – Salmān (father's name, lit. "secure")
:''Nasab'' – Amīn (grandfather's name, "trustworthy")
:''Nisbah'' – al-Fārisī ("the Persian").
"Muḥammad, son of Salmān, son of Amīn, the Persian"
This person would simply be referred to as "Muḥammad" or by his
kunya, which relates him to his first-born son, e.g. ''Abū Karīm'' "father of Karīm". To signify respect or to specify which Muḥammad one is speaking about, the name could be lengthened to the extent necessary or desired.
Common mistakes
Non-Arabic speakers often make these mistakes:
* Separating "the X of Y" word combinations (see
iḍāfah
''Iḍāfah'' () is the Arabic grammatical construct case, mostly used to indicate possession.
''Idāfa'' basically entails putting one noun after another: the second noun specifies more precisely the nature of the first noun. In forms of Arabi ...
):
** With "Abdul": Arabic names may be written "Abdul (something)", but "Abdul" means "servant of the" or "follower 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 says "Abdul-Rahman", not merely "Abdul". If he introduces himself as "Abdul-Rahman" (which means "the servant of the Merciful"), one does not say "Mr. Rahman" (as "Rahman" is not a family name but part of his
theophoric">/nowiki>theophoric.html" ;"title="theophoric.html" ;"title="/nowiki>theophoric">/nowiki>theophoric">theophoric.html" ;"title="/nowiki>theophoric">/nowiki>theophoric/nowiki> personal name); instead it would be Mr. al-Ahmad, the latter being the family name.
** People not familiar with Arabic sandhi in ''iḍāfah'': ''Habībullāh'' = "beloved (''Habīb'') of 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
In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For example, in Arabi ...
nominative, plus the article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
, appearing as ''-d-'', plus the genitive ''dīn '). 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
Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...
commit the same error. If a person's name is Abd-ul-Rahim ("servant of the Merciful"), others may call him Mr. Abdul ("servant of the") which would sound quite odd to a native speaker of Arabic.
* Not distinguishing ' from ': Some Muslim names include the Arabic word ' ( "nobility"). Here, ⟨ʻ⟩ represents the ''ayin
''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only).
The letter represents a ...
'', a voiced pharyngeal fricative
The voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\. Epiglotta ...
, ⟨ʾ⟩ represents the hamza
Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...
, a glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
, and ⟨l⟩ is spelled and pronounced at ordinary length, /l/. In ', the ''l'' is written twice (⟨ll⟩) and pronounced twice as long (a geminate
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
), as /l/ or /ll/. In Arabic pronunciation, ' and ' are clearly different. But Europeans
Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...
, Iranians, and India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
ns may not pronounce some Arabic sounds as a native Arabic speaker would, and thus tend to pronounce them identically. For example, the name ' (Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
, "the Nobility of the Faith") is sometimes misspelled as '. There is another name ' (''Aliullah'', "the Nobility of God"), which uses both distinctly.
* Taking ' or ' for a middle name: As stated above, these words indicate the order of the family chain. Westerners often confuse them with middle names, especially when they're written as "Ben", as it is the case in some countries. For example, Sami Ben Ahmed would be mistakenly addressed as Mr. Ben Ahmed. To correctly address the person, one should use Mr. Sami Ahmed or Mr. Ahmed.
* Grammar: As between all languages, there are differences between Arabic grammar and the grammar of other languages. Arabic forms noun compounds in the opposite order from Indo-Iranian languages, for example. During the war in Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in 2002, a BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
whose name they stated as "Allah Muhammad". This may be a misspelling for ', for if not, by the rules of Arabic grammar, this name means "the Allah who belongs to Muhammad", which, assuming the person is an
would be unacceptable religiously. However, by the rules of
, this name does mean "Muhammad who belongs to Allah", being the equivalent of the Arabic "Muhammadullah".
speak Iranian languages. Such Perso-Arab or Indo-Arab multilingual compound names are not uncommon in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. There is, for example, the Punjabi name ''Allah-Ditta'' which joins the Arabic ''Allah'' with the Punjabi ''Ditta'' "given".
In Arabic culture, as in many parts of the world, a person's ancestry and family name are very important. An example is explained below.
Assume a man is called ''Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan''.
* ''Saleh'' is his personal name, and the one that his family and friends would call him by.
* ''ibn'' and ''bin'' translates as "son of", so ''Tariq'' is Saleh's father's name.
* ''ibn 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 ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan'' translates as "Saleh, son of Tariq, son of Khalid; who is of the family of al-Fulan."
The Arabic for "daughter of" is ''bint.'' A woman with the name ''Fatimah bint Tariq ibn Khalid al-Goswami'' translates as "Fatimah, daughter of Tariq, son of Khalid; who is of the family al-Goswami."
In this case, ibn and bint are included in the official naming. Most Arab countries today, however, do not use 'ibn' and 'bint' in their naming system. If Saleh were an Egyptian, he would be called ''Saleh Tariq Khalid al-Fulan'' and Fatimah would be ''Fatimah Tariq Khalid al-Goswami.''
If Saleh marries a wife (who would keep her own
, family, and surnames), their children will take Saleh's family name. Therefore, their son Mohammed would be called ''Mohammed ibn Saleh ibn Tariq al-Fulan.''
However, not all Arab countries use the name in its full length, but conventionally use two- and three-word names, and sometimes four-word names in official or legal matters. Thus the first name is the personal name, the middle name is the father's name and the last name is the family name.
The Arabic names listed below are used in the Arab world with correspondent Hebrew, English,
and Greek equivalents in many cases. Most are derived from Syriac transliterations of the Hebrew Bible.
* The popular romanization of the Arabized and Hebrew names are written first, then the standardized romanization are written in oblique. Notice that Arabized names may have variants.
* If a literal Arabic translation of a name exists, it will be placed after the final standardized romanization.
* If an Arabic correlation is ambiguous, ''(?)'' will be placed following the name in question.
*:
. There is debate as to which is the better rendition of the Aramaic Yeshua, because both names are of late origin.
*:
Youhanna is the Arab Christian name of John, while Yahya is the Muslim version of the name, as used in the Qur'an. They have completely different triconsonantal roots: ''H-N-N'' ("grace") vs ''H-Y-Y'' ("Life"). Specifically, Youhanna may be the Biblical John the Baptist or the apostle. Yahya refers specifically to John the Baptist.
* ''El'', the Hebrew word for strength/might or deity, is usually represented as ''īl'' in Arabic, although it carries no meaning in classical and modern Arabic. The only exception is its usage in the
.
by their surnames. Names may be alphabetized under ''Abu'', ''Abd'' and ''ibn'', while names are not alphabetized under ''al-'' and ''el-'' and are instead alphabetized under the following element.
(Oxford, 1971).
(2003) by Da'ud ibn Auda (David B. Appleton)