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.
The ' () is the given name, first name, or personal name; e.g. "sami" or "Shamna". 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:
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 bint (, "daughter of"). 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.
ÿAmmÃÂr ibn Sumayya means "ÿAmmÃÂr son of Sumayya". Sumayya is the personal name of ÿAmmÃÂr's mother; the same person can also be identified by his father's personal name, "ÿAmmÃÂr ibn Yasir". In later Islamic periods, the nasab was an important tool for determining a child's father by describing paternity in a social (i.e., to whom the mother was legally married at the time of conception) rather than 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 develops with Islam, meaning 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.
The laqab (), pl. alqÃÂb (), 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 Arabic definite article. ' is the Arabic version of the name Aaron and ' means "the Rightly-Guided".
The laqab was used as a regnal title by the Caliphate. This was most prominent in Abbasid times, for example al-Maná¹£à «r biâÂÂllÃÂh.
Another common form of is that of compounds ending with (), ('of the State'), ('of the Kingdom'), or ('of Islam'). Examples include á¹¢alÃÂḥ al-Dën, Shams al-Dën, Nà «r al-Dën, Izz al-Din, NÃÂá¹£ir al-Dawla, NiáºÂÃÂm al-Mulk, Sayf al-IslÃÂm.
In ancient Arab societies, the use of a laqab was common, but today it 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-Dën 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 abà « (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.
A common name-form among Arab Muslims is the prefix ' (, "servant", "worshipper") combined with the word for God (Allah), or with one of the epithets of God. For example,
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 Abdul-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.
Generally, Arab Christians have names indistinguishable from Muslims, with the exception of some explicitly Islamic names such as Muhammad, which are not usually borne by Christians. Some common Christian names are:
Some people, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, when descendant of a famous ancestor, start their last name with ÃÂl "family, clan" (), like the House of Saud ÃÂl SuÃ»à «d or Al ash-Sheikh ("family of the sheikh"). ÃÂl 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 â e.g. Bashar al-Assad.
<br /> Muḥammad ibn SalmÃÂn ibn Amën al-FÃÂrisë
"Muḥammad, son of SalmÃÂn, son of Amën, 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. Abà « Karëm "father of Karëm". To signify respect or to specify which Muḥammad one is speaking about, the name could be lengthened to the extent necessary or desired.
Non-Arabic speakers often make these mistakes:
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.
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.
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.
Some names might have different translations based on religious context:
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 crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman share the same name, but their English spellings differ.
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.