Ism (name)

Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given, middle, and family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Name structure

'

The ' () is the given name, first name, or personal name; e.g. " Ahmad" or " Fatima". Most Arabic names have meaning as ordinary adjectives and nouns, and are often aspirational of character. For example, ''Muhammad'' means 'Praiseworthy' and '' Ali'' means 'Exalted' or 'High'.

The syntactic context will generally differentiate the name from the noun or adjective. However, Arabic newspapers will occasionally place names in brackets, or quotation marks, to avoid confusion.

In fact, the name ''Muhammad'' is so popular throughout parts of Africa, Arabia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia, that it is often represented by the abbreviation "Md.", "Mohd.", "Muhd.", or just "M.". In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, 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 or matronymic, or a series thereof. It indicates the person's heritage by the word ''ibn'' ( "son of", colloquially ''bin'') or ''ibnat'' ("daughter of", also ''bint'', abbreviated ''bte.''). In the 1995 book ''Name Studies'' (De Gruyter), wrote that, although the nasab was still common contemporarily, ''ibn'' and ''bint'' were omitted "in almost all Arab countries".

Ibn Khaldun () means "son of Khaldun". Khaldun is the father's personal name or, in this particular case, the name of a remote male ancestor.

ʿAmmār ibn Sumayya means "ʿAmmār son of Sumayya". Sumayya is the personal name of ʿAmmār's mother, the same person can also be identified by his father's personal name "ʿAmmār ibn Yasir". In later Islamic periods the nasab was an important tool in determining a child's father by means of describing paternity in a social (i.e. to whom was the mother legally married during the conception of the child), not a biological sense, because the father's biological identity can be grounds for speculation. In early Islamic contexts this function is not yet well established. This stems from a legal principle introduced by Islam regarding the legal status of children (they can only arise from marriage) and changes to waiting periods relating to divorce to establish an undisputed legal father for any child. This function only developing with Islam means that one can find many Companions of the Prophet bearing a maternal nasab, as the naming conventions reflected in their names still stem from pre-Islamic attitudes and beliefs.

Several ''nasab'' names can follow in a chain to trace a person's ancestry backwards in time, as was important in the tribal society of medieval 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; cognomen; nickname; title, honorific; last name, surname, family name. The ''laqab'' could be purely descriptive of a person, express admiration or be insulting and derogatory.

An example is the name of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, which uses the definite article '' al-''. ' is the Arabic version of the name ''Aaron'' and ' means "the Rightly-Guided".

The ''laqab'' was used as a regnal title by the caliphs. This was most prominent in Abbasid times, for example al-Manṣūr bi’llāh.

Another common form of is that of compounds ending with (), ('of the State'), ('of the Kingdom'), or ('of Islam'). Examples include Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, Shams al-Dīn, Nūr al-Dīn, Izz al-Din, 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, clan, family, profession, town, city, country, or any other term used to show relevance. It follows a family through several generations. A demonym example is , meaning that the person is originally from Aleppo or a descendant of people from Aleppo. For a profession example, meaning "the tailor".

The ''laqab'' and ''nisbah'' are similar in use, but they could be used simultaneously. For example: Sayf Al-Dīn Al-Halabi.

'

A '' kunya'' (, ''kunyah'') is a teknonym in Arabic names. It is a component of an Arabic name, a type of epithet, 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'' or a nickname, without literally referring to a son or a daughter. For example, Sabri Khalil al-Banna was known as 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'' (mother) in a genitive construction, i.e. "father of" or "mother of" as an honorific in place of or alongside given names in the Arab world.

A kunya may also be a nickname expressing the attachment of an individual to a certain thing, as in Abu Bakr, "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 word for God (Allah), ' ( "Worshipper of God"), or with one of the epithets of God.

As a mark of deference, ' is usually not conjoined with the prophet's 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

Generally, Arab Christians have names indistinguishable from Muslims, with the exception of some explicitly Islamic names, e.g. ''Muhammad''. Some common Christian names are:
* Arabic versions of Christian names (e.g. saints' names: ' for '' Peter'', ''Boulos '' for '' Paul'').
* Names of Greek, Armenian, and Aramaic origin, which are also used by ethnically non-Arab Christians such as Armenians, Assyrians, Copts and Syriac Christians.
* Use of European names, especially French, and English. This is a recent convention for Christian Arabs, which mainly started with the British and French mandates in the Levant. Examples include George Habash, Michel Aflaq, and Charles Helou.
* Names in honor of Jesus Christ:
: ' ( ) / ' () ("Servant of Jesus")
: ' (masc.) / ' (fem.) ("Servant of the Messiah")
: Derivations of ' ("Messiah"): ' ("Most Anointed"), ' ("More Anointed"), ' "Anointed" and ' "Infant Christ". The root, ', means "to anoint" (as in '' masah'') 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 ''Āl Suʻūd'' or Al ash-Sheikh ("family of the sheikh"). ''Āl'' is distinct from the definite article (). 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.

Example

Muḥammad ibn Salmān ibn Amīn al-Fārisī

:''Ism'' – Muḥammad (proper name, )
:''Nasab'' – Salmān (father's name, )
:''Nasab'' – Amīn (grandfather's name, )
:''Nisbah'' – al-Fārisī ().

"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):
** 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 personal name); instead it would be Mr. al-Ahmad, the latter being the family name. Therefore, it is better to write "Abdul Rahman" as "abdu r-rahmān" and "abdul ghafār" as "abdu l-ghafār" .
** 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 nominative, plus the article, 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 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'', a voiced pharyngeal fricative, ⟨ʾ⟩ represents the hamza, a glottal stop, and ⟨l⟩ is spelled and pronounced at ordinary length, /l/. In ', the ''l'' is written twice (⟨ll⟩) and pronounced twice as long (a geminate), as /l/ or /ll/. In Arabic pronunciation, ' and ' are clearly different. But Europeans, Iranians, and Indians may not pronounce some Arabic sounds as a native Arabic speaker would, and thus tend to pronounce them identically. For example, the name ' ( Aladdin, "the Nobility of the Faith") is sometimes misspelled as ' by Europeans and Indians. There is another name ' (''Aliullah'', "the Nobility of God"), which uses both distinctly. Therefore, the name "علاء" must be written in Latin in the form of "Halāʾ " or "Halaa'e" to differentiate it between “Allāh” the name of God in Arabic , and also the female name آلاء “Ālāʾ ” (Alaa'e) Which means "blessings" (God's blessings).
* Taking ' or ' for a middle name: As stated above, these words indicate the order of the family chain. English-speakers often confuse them with middle names, especially when they are 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 or Mr. Sami Ben 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 in 2002, a BBC team found in Kabul an internally displaced person 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 Arabic speaking Muslim would be unacceptable religiously. However, by the rules of Iranian languages and most languages of India, this name does mean "Muhammad who belongs to Allah", being the equivalent of the Arabic "Muhammadullah". Most Afghans 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".

Arab family naming convention

Conventionally, in Arab 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 paternal 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 Abdullah ibn Omar al-Rashid'' translates as "Fatimah, daughter of Abdullah, son of Omar; who is of the family al-Rashid."

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 Abdullah Omar al-Rashid.''

If Saleh marries a wife (who would keep her own maiden, 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'', not ''Mohammed ibn Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan'' (too long).

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 father's family name.

Biblical names and their Arabic equivalent

The Arabic names listed below are used in the Arab world with correspondent Hebrew, English, Syriac 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. 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.
* ''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 Iraqi Arabic.

Some names might have different translations based on religious context:

*: There are two versions of the name Jesus: ''Yasuʿ'' () is the Christian version, as used in the Bible, while '' ʿĪsa'' () is the Muslim version, as used in the Qur'an.

*: Similarly, there are two versions of the name John: ''Yuḥannā'' () is the Christian version, while ''Yaḥya'' () is the Muslim version. They have different triconsonantal roots: ''Ḥ-N-N'' ("grace") vs ''Ḥ-Y-Y'' ("life"). ''Yuḥannā'' is cognate with the original Hebrew (). Note that ''Yuḥannā'' may refer to either John the Baptist or John the Apostle, whereas ''Yaḥya'' refers specifically to John the Baptist.

Arabic names in English

Often Arabic names can be spelled multiple ways in English, and sometimes a person's name may be treated inconsistently. For example, the American boxer Muhammad Ali and the current Saudi crown prince/Prime minister Mohammed bin Salman share the same name, but their English spellings differ.

Indexing

According to the ''Chicago Manual of Style'', Arabic names are indexed 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.Indexes: A Chapter from The Chicago Manual of Style

Archive
. Chicago Manual of Style. Retrieved on December 23, 2014. p. 25 (PDF document p. 27/56).

See also

*List of Arabic star names
* List of Arabic place names
*Nisba (onomastics)
* Kunya (Arabic)

References

External links

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)

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