Arabic given names

Meanings, roots, and origins of Arabic given names.

• Abdulaziz

  A theophoric compound name: 'servant of al-ʿAzīz' — one of the divine names, from the root ʿ-z-z, 'might'.

• Abdulkarim

  A theophoric compound: servant of al-Karīm, from the root k-r-m, which in Arabic covers both open-handedness and nobility of stock.

• Abdullah

  A male given name, a theophoric compound of ʿabd ('servant') and Allāh ('God') meaning 'servant of God'.

• Abdullatif

  A theophoric compound: servant of al-Laṭīf, from l-ṭ-f — a root that means both gentleness and fineness too small to be seen, and the divine name joins the two.

• Abdulmohsen

  A theophoric compound: servant of al-Muḥsin, from ḥ-s-n — not the same form as the name Hassan, and transitive where Hassan is not.

• Abdulrahman

  A theophoric compound: 'servant of al-Raḥmān', from the root r-ḥ-m, 'mercy' — the same root as raḥim, the womb.

• Adnan

  From ʿ-d-n, to abide in a place. The genealogists name one of the two great branches of the Arabs, the ʿAdnāniyya, after a figure of this name — and most of the

• Ahmad

  A male given name from the root ḥ-m-d, an elative form meaning 'most praiseworthy'. Closely related to Muhammad.

• Aisha

  A female given name from the root ʿ-y-sh meaning 'living, alive, prosperous'.

• Ali

  A male given name from the root ʿ-l-w meaning 'high, elevated, exalted'. Among the most widespread Arabic names.

• Alia

  The elevated, feminine of ʿālin — and, in the geographers, the district of the Ḥijāz above Medina: one word doing two different jobs.

• Aljazi

  A Najdī female name understood from jazā, to requite and repay in kind; the classical feminine of the participle is al-Jāziya.

• Aljohara

  The singular of jawāhir — one gem, with the definite article carried into the name itself.

• Amal

  A female given name meaning 'hope', from the root ʾ-m-l.

• Amer

  From ʿ-m-r, 'to inhabit and build up' — the opposite of ruin. The same root gives ʿimāra, one of the six tiers of nasab.

• Arwa

  A female given name from the mountain ibex — arwā is the plural of urwiyya, the female wild goat of the high country — with a second derivation from rayy, the q

• Asiya

  A female given name the philologists count among the foreign proper names; the Qurʾān speaks of the wife of Pharaoh but does not name her, and Arabic separately

• Asma

  An old Arab female name glossed two ways — from wasāma, comeliness, and as the plural of ism, 'name'.

• Badr

  The full moon — the moon on the night it comes to completion.

• Bandar

  A Persian loanword meaning 'port' that entered Arabic through Gulf trade and became a given name.

• Bilqis

  The name the historical and exegetical tradition gives the queen of Sabaʾ in Yemen; the Qurʾān tells her story and does not give the name, and the philologists

• Bushra

  Good news — from the root that also gives bashar, 'humankind', by way of the skin that shows it.

• Dalal

  From the root d-l-l — the gentle, confident grace of one who knows they are loved.

• Danah

  The large, fine pearl — a Gulf pearling term that became a given name.

• Fahd

  From the root f-h-d — the leopard or hunting cheetah, one of the animal names Arabs favoured for their sons.

• Faisal

  From the root f-ṣ-l, 'to separate, to decide' — the arbiter whose judgement is final, and by extension a cutting sword.

• Fatima

  A female given name from the root f-ṭ-m ('to wean'), meaning 'one who weans' — traditionally understood as one kept from harm.

• Fawzia

  From f-w-z — deliverance first, success second; built on the shape of a nisba and used as a given name.

• Ghada

  From the root gh-y-d, denoting softness and a supple bearing — a graceful young woman.

• Hafsa

  From ḥ-f-ṣ. The lexicon gives al-ḥafṣ as a lion's cub, the female being ḥafṣa — which is why the kunya Abū Ḥafṣ carries the force it does.

• Hajar

  The female given name is of non-Arabic (Hebrew/Aramaic) origin, arabized early — not an Arabic derivation, though Arabic has a root h-j-r whose participle takes

• Hamza

  From the root ḥ-m-z — sharpness and a pungent bite, and of a person keenness of heart. The lexicon also records al-ḥamza as the name of a herb; it does not give

• Hanan

  Tenderness — from a root whose first sense is the she-camel's cry for her calf.

• Hassan

  A male given name from the root ḥ-s-n meaning 'good, beautiful, excellent'. Shares its root with Hussein.

• Hessa

  A female given name from the root ḥ-ṣ-ṣ; the word ḥiṣṣa means 'share, portion'. A cherished traditional Gulf name.

• Hilal

  The crescent that opens the month — and, in the root, a raised voice rather than a light.

• Hind

  One of the oldest attested Arab female names; the lexicographers gloss hind as a herd of a hundred camels or more.

• Huda

  From the root h-d-y, 'to guide' — right guidance, the opposite of straying.

• Hussein

  A male given name, the diminutive of Hassan, from the root ḥ-s-n ('good, beautiful').

• Ibrahim

  A male given name of non-Arabic (Hebrew/Aramaic) origin, arabized early; the name of a sura of the Qur'an.

• Ismail

  A male given name of non-Arabic (Hebrew/Aramaic) origin, arabized early; attested in the Qur'an, and the figure the genealogists run the ʿAdnānī framework up to

• Jawaher

  The plural of jawhara, 'a gem' — jewels. Arabized early from Persian and fully naturalised in Arabic.

• Kaab

  The ankle bone, and by extension whatever protrudes and rises — which is how a man's eminence and the name of the Kaʿba both come from one word.

• Khadija

  A female given name; classical philologists derive it from khadīj, 'a child born before its time'.

• Khalid

  A male given name from the root kh-l-d meaning 'eternal, everlasting'.

• Latifa

  A female given name from the root l-ṭ-f meaning 'gentle, kind, gracious'.

• Lulwa

  The Gulf form of luʾluʾa, 'a pearl' — a name from the industry that built the coast.

• Mai

  One of the short old female names of Arabic poetry, shortened from Mayya; the lexicographers report more than one derivation for it and settle on none.

• Majed

  Active participle of majada — one possessed of majd, glory won by conduct rather than inherited.

• Malik

  From m-l-k, 'the one who possesses' — not the same word as malik, a king, and not the same word as malak, an angel, which the lexicographers mostly refer to ano