Al-Qudayhi

Overview

Al-Qudayhi (al-Qudayḥī) is taken as the nisba to al-Qudayḥ, a settlement of the district of al-Qaṭīf on the coast the geographers call al-Khaṭṭ. The name is a diminutive form on the root q-d-ḥ, which Lisān al-ʿArab gives for the qadaḥ, the vessel one drinks from, and for qadaḥa al-zand, striking fire from a flint, with further senses in the same entry.

An ordinary word, in the diminutive

Diminutives of common nouns are among the commonest shapes for Arabic place-names, and they are equally common as personal bynames, so this form can arise without reference to any place at all. A family name of this shape is not by itself evidence of origin from this coast, and only a source that names the place will connect the two.

On sources

The lexical content is from Lisān al-ʿArab. The classical geography this reference cites does not carry al-Qudayḥ of the al-Qaṭīf district as an entry, so this page records the name and the district and constructs no history for it.

Bearing the name

A toponymic family name records a place an ancestor was attributed to — born there, settled there, known by it — as the name was applied to him, not a lineage. It attaches to no tribe, and two families bearing it need have no connection to one another beyond the place itself.