Arabic name

Classical Arabic names usually consist of several parts:

• The ism ( اسم ) is the personal name. Besides Quranic name or the name of the companions of Muhammad (such as Muhammad, Ahmad, Mahmud Abd Allah, Umar, Uthman Ibrahim ), any words of Arabic language can be selected with a good meaning as a name.
• The kunya ( كنية ) is a personal honorable epithet, be addressed to the Muslims in Arab countries in everyday life, "Father " (Abu ) or " Mother" ( Umm ) of ...
• The nasab ( نسب ) denotes the descent, often over three generations, "Son " ( Ibn ) or "daughter" ( Bint ) of ... The word for son is ibn indeed, but it is used as part of their name, the Alif falls is gone and ibn ( ابن ) to bin ( بن ).
• The nisba ( نسبة ), also Nisbe, is a salt formed with the suffix -i ​​adjective belonging to a tribe, the origin of a place ( eg, at- Tabari, " the Tabaristan from " ), or the denomination or job title (al- Mawardi, " the rose water dealer ") features.
• Furthermore, one or more laqab draw near; this can be a ( prefixed ) name of honor (eg, Sayf al -Din, " sword of religion" ) or a ( trailing ) Nickname (eg at- Tawil, "the tall one ").

Structure of the Arabic name

Parent is the name in ( laqab - ) kunya - ism - nasab - nisba ( - laqab ).

Historical figures are partly under their nisba, others under the kunya (eg Abu Tammam ) or its nasab ( Ibn Khaldun ) known.

In the 20th century a family was introduced to the Western model in many Arab countries.

The spelling of names in Latin characters often depends on the former colonial power. For example, the first name Hisham in the Maghreb is usually written on the French model Hichem, Jordan Hisham on the English model. Especially with well-known personalities from the Maghreb, the French transliteration has most generally accepted in the West, about Habib Bourguiba, after the phonetic model of dialect pronunciation, not the transcription after the classical Arabic pronunciation, for Bourguiba Abu Ruqaiba would read.

In the spelling of Arabic names is important to note that it is only the vowel phonemes a, i and u are in the Arabic language, and only these, if ever called, in Arabic script. The often to be found in books and newspapers vowels "o" and "e" are based on the actual pronunciation of these phonemes. This is dependent on the adjacent consonant phonemes. The vowel phoneme "a", in the debate on an open "e " (or " ä" ), the phoneme "i" to a closed "e" and the phoneme "u" to " o" (the " ö " ) are.

Names and their meaning

Yasin