Arab Family Naming Convention
In Arabic culture a person's ancestry and his/her family name are very important. An example is explained below.
Assume a man has the name of Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan.
- Saleh is his personal name, and the one that his family and friends would call him by.
- ibn translates as "son of", so Tariq is Saleh's father's name.
- ibn Khalid means that Tariq is the son of Khalid, making Khalid the grandfather of Saleh.
- al-Fulan would be Saleh's family name.
Hence, Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan translates as "Saleh, son of Tariq, son of Khaled; of the family al-Fulan."
The Arabic for "daughter of" is bint. A woman with the name Fatimah bint Tariq bin Khalid al-Fulan translates as "Fatimah, daughter of Tariq, Son of Khaled; of the family al-Fulan."
In this case, ibn and bint are included in the official naming. Most Arab countries today, however, do not use 'ibn' and 'bint' in their naming system. If Saleh was an Egyptian, he would be called Saleh Tariq Khalid al-Fulan and Fatimah would be Fatimah Tariq Khalid al-Fulan.
If Saleh marries a wife (who would keep her own maiden, family, and surnames), their children will take Saleh's family name. Therefore, their son Mohammed would be called Mohammed ibn Saleh ibn Tariq al-Fulan.
All Arab countries however do not use the name to its full length, but conventionally use 2 and 3 word names, and sometimes 4 word names in official or legal matters. Thus the first name is the personal name, the middle name is the father's name and the last name is the family name.
Read more about this topic: Arabic Name
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