Arabic names

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 still in use in many Arab countries.

Overview

Ethnic groups in the different modern Arab countries (by broad definition, any country that employs the Arabic language as mother tongue, one of its common languages, or as a lingua-franca) either have adjusted to different modern naming conventions or have retained their traditional naming conventions. In general, an Arabic name will begin with a given name, followed by the name of the person's father, perhaps followed by the names of other ancestors, and ended with a family or clan name.

Since there is no one predominant method of transliterating from Arabic letters to Roman letters, spelling can vary widely, and this can add to the confusion. "Said al-Ghamdi", for instance, could just as correctly be spelled "Saeed Al Ghamdi" or "Sayeed Alghamdi".

A simple example

Suppose somebody is named Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Omar bin Othman al-Ahmed. This name translates to "Mohammed, son of Abdullah, son of Omar, son of Othman, of the Ahmed family".

The parts of an Arabic name

Given names

Muslim given names are generally figurative – they express attributes of the person, and their relationship to God For example, "Abd", Arabic for "servant", is often used among Muslims as the first part of a proper name, with the second being a name or appellation of God. For example, "Abd Allah" (often written "Abdullah") means "Servant of God," and "Abd al-Rahman" means "Servant of the Most Compassionate" (a common Qur'anic appellation of God). It is important to note that, while such names may be written "Abdul (something)", "Abdul" 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".

Other given names include "Ibrahim", which means "father of a multitude" and "Jamil", which means "handsome" or "beautiful".

Fathers' names

Usually a father's name will be preceded by "bin", sometimes spelled "ben", which means "son of". A name can be described to any precision required. Some people carry the sequence of names up to the fourth or fifth level, so they use that as a full name; others just use first/last or first/father/last. A father's name is referred to as a "kuniyyat".

Occasionally, a generation may be skipped. If Omar were much more noteworthy than his son Abdullah, then Omar's grandson Mohammed may call himself "Mohammed bin Omar."

Women are named the same way as men, but replacing the word "bin" with "bint" (daughter of) after her first name. The sequence then continues with the names of her father, his father, etc. (All Arab societies are patrilineal.)

Family names

Family names are often derived from age-old tribal, professional, or clan names. Some of the "kuniyyat" are passed down generations and have become family names. Family names will frequently begin with "al", meaning "the", as in "al-Iraqi". Sometimes the "al" is omitted, and in certain countries it may be spelled "el". Arabs have a tribal way of describing family; a person could have two or three family names, where each one of them is a smaller group within the larger one.

Differences in naming conventions

Modern Iraqi Muslim Arabs usually do not use the prefix "bin" before their fathers' names, whereas people in other Arab countries usually do. (For example Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, would have been called "Saddam bin Hussein" had he been born in a different country.) It is usually possible to guess a person's Palestinian origin from their popular use of "Abu" names. Syria retains a heavy Turkish influence, which is reflected in commonly found Turkish surnames (Shishekli, for example). Maghribi names are quite distinctive due to heavy Berber (Tamazigh) influences. Some Christian Arabs, including some from Palestine, like to have names that are indistinguishable from those of their Sunni neighbors, but there are as many Christian Arabs 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 – not only in the Levant, but from the Maghreb to Iran. Many Israelis of "Oriental" origins often maintain Arab surnames and adopt Arab names common to Arab Jews. In certain countries like Malaysia and Singapore, male Muslims' names often begin with Mohammed or Muhammed, continued by the given name, followed by the prefix "bin", then his father's name.