Arabic Naming Practices And Period Names List

by Da'ud ibn Auda

© 1998 by David Appleton; all rights reserved.
Editted 1998, 2000 Arval Benicoeur from a copy posted at al-musta'rib.

1. By an 'ism, a single personal name, as Muhammad (Mohammed), Musa (Moses), Ibrahim (Abraham), Hasan, Ahmad. Adults are seldom called by their given names; socially it is considered a slight to use the first name of an elder or parent.
2. By a kunya, an honorific name, as the father or mother of certain persons (usually the eldest son), e.g., abu Da'ud [the father of David], umm Salim [the mother of Salim]. Married ladies are, as a general rule, simply called after the name of their first son, e.g., umm Ahmad [the mother of Ahmad].
3. By a nasab, a patronymic or pedigree, as the son or daughter of a certain one, e.g., ibn 'Umar [the son of Omar], bint 'Abbas [the daughter of 'Abbas]. The nasab is always a patronymic, the <son or daughter> of <father's name>. The only notable exception to this, a matronymic, was a special case: 'Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary).
4. By a lakab, a combination of words into a cognomen or epithet, usually religious, relating to nature, a descriptive, or of some admirable quality the person has (or would like to have), e.g., 'Abd Allah (Abdullah) [Servant of God], Harun al-Rashid [Aaron the Rightly-guided].
5. By a nickname of harmless signification. "Harmless signification" of this sort was often meant to avert the evil eye or the unwanted attention of jinn ("genies") and other evil spirits.
6. By an occupational hisba, derived from a person's trade or profession, e.g., Muhammad al-Hallaj [Mohammed the dresser of cotton].
7. By a geographical hisba, derived from the place of residence or birth, e.g., Yusuf al-Isfahani [Joseph of Isfahan].

During the Crusades period many names followed the pattern of Honorific (or Cognomen) + Personal Name + Cognomen, e.g., Badr al-Din Baktash al-Najmi, or Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Mustansir.

Name elements including the phrases al-Din (of the faith), al-Dawla (of the state), al-Islam (of Islam) and al-Mulk (of the kingdom) were a specific type of honorific which was used almost exclusively by sultans, qazis and a few others of very high rank. Such name elements are not appropriate for use in the SCA.

The teachings of Muhammad influenced Arabic (and Islamic) naming practices. The following are some examples from the Hadith:

"The best names in the sight of God are 'Abdu 'llah ('Abdullah) [the servant of God], 'Abd al-Rahman [servant of the Merciful One].

"Call your children after your Prophet [Muhammad remains the most popular Muslim name], but the names God likes best are 'Abdu 'llah, 'Abd al-Rahman, and the next best names are Haris [Husbandman] and Humam [High-minded]. The worst of names is Harb [enmity], or Murrah [bitterness].

"The vilest name you can give a human being is Maliku al-Amlak, or "King of kings", because no one can be such but God Himself.

"You must not name your slaves Yasar [Abundance], Rabah [Gain], Najih [Prosperity], Aflah [Felicitous], because if you ask after one of these your domestic servants, and he be not present, the negative reply will express that abundance, or gain, or prosperity, or felicity, are not in your dwelling."

Suraih ibn Hani' related that his father came to the Prophet with his tribe, and the Prophet heard them calling him Abu al-Hakam. The Prophet said, "Why do you call him so? Hakam, 'Ruler', is a attribute of God." And the Prophet ordered him to call himself Abu Shuraih, i.e., the father of Shuraih, his eldest son.

Some names were used both as a given name and as a cognomen; e.g., Rashid ("Guide") and al-Rashid ("the Rightly-guided"); Hasan and al-Hasan; Anbar and al-Anbar.

A note on pronunciation -- in some cognomens, the "l" in "al" is dropped and the first letter of the following word is substituted for it for words beginning with the following consonants: d (ad-Duri), n (an-Najmi), r (ar-Razi), s (as-Salar), sh (ash-Sahnfara), t (at-Tayyib), th (ath-Thaqafi), and z (az-Zubair). This applies to the pronunciation only; these names are still written "al-".

Men's Given Names

Men's Cognomens

Women's Given Names

Women's Cognomens

Bibliography:

Adams, Cecil, More of the Straight Dope, Ballantine Books, New York, 1988

Auda, Da'ud ibn (David Appleton), "Arabic Naming Practices", from the Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium, Free Trumpet Press West, Berkeley, 1987

bin Muhammad H. Kabir, Bahir, A Guide to Islamic Names, Safa Press, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, 1990

Dodge, Bayard, ed. and transl., The Fihrist of al-Nadim, A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, 1970, two volumes

Gabrieli, Francesco, transl., Arab Historians of the Crusades, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1957, 362 pp.

Hamori, Andras, On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1974

Hodgson, Marshall G. S., The Venture of Islam, Vol. 1, The Classical Age of Islam, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1974, 532 pp.

Hughes, Thomas Patrick, Dictionary of Islam, Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, New Delhi, 1976 (repr. of 1885 ed.), 750 pp.

Jaschke, Richard, English-Arabic Conversational Dictionary, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York, 1976, 392 pp.

Lewis, Bernard, The Arabs in History, Harper & Row, New York, 1958, 200 pp.

Qazi, M. A., What's in a Muslim Name, Kazi Publications, Chicago, 1974, 54 pp.

Saunders, J. J., A History of Medieval Islam, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1965, 219 pp.

Smith, Elsdon C., Treasury of Name Lore, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1967.

von Grunebaum, Gustave E., Medieval Islam, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1946, 378 pp.

Editted and published by Arval Benicoeur