Are these proper Islamic male names?

**Reimu Hakurei** · September 28, 2014, 08:51 AM

I did not know where to post it (I thought of having a list of male names that all Muslim countries would share in my M2TW mod), so I thought I'd post it here.
I need the help of a Muslim, preferably a native (or just fluent) speaker of Arabic.

Are these proper Islamic male names?
Abd + a name of Allah

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Abd + an ephitet of the Prophet Muhammad

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Arabic versions of Biblical names

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Babri** · September 28, 2014, 09:44 AM

Abd can be used with a name of Allah, but not with a name of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as far as I know. For example Abdullah. But you surely can Prophet (SAW) name itself, for example Muhammad, Ahmad and so on. To clarify, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the last messenger of Allah & was a servant of Allah,and we muslims do not worship him, because that would be 'shirk'. That is why making a name of Abd+(name of the Prophet(SAW)) won't make any sense in most cases.

Edit : I do not speak Arabic BTW, but I am a Muslim so I know some of this stuff inherently.

**Cyrene** · September 28, 2014, 09:45 AM

i'm a fluent speaker of Arabic so i guess i can help,

your first section (Abd + a name of Allah) is ok, except that several names ( specifically: Abd al-ʿAẓīm, Abd aẓ-Ẓāhir, Abd al-Ḥafīẓ ) <--- these have incorrect spelling, in Classical Arabic they should be Abd al-ʿAtheem, Abd al-Dhāhir, Abd al-Hafīth.

as for the Second Section (Abd + an ephitet of the Prophet Muhammad) i don't think these are Islamic Names, since the Word Abd al-Rasul for example means ( Worshiper of the Prophet ) and it is a Sin to worship anyone besides God, that said, there are Arabs today who have this name but these names in general faced a lot of criticism, plus i don't think these names were known back in the Middle Ages so they may have been known starting from 1600-1700 AD, though if you want to add them in game, i suggest you give them to Arab factions only, since only Arabs have them.

Third section: remove the ' before Ayyub, Asif, Ishaq, Ismāʿīl and Ibrahim since they stand for the Arabic letter Ayn ع which shouldn't exist before these names.

here are other Arabic Bibilical ones:

'Isa ( Jesus )

Maryam ( the Virgin Mary )

Nuh (Noah)

Yahya ( John )

Adam ( Adam )

Hawwa ( Eve )

Sam'aan (Simon)

Samwal ( Samuel )

Elyas ( Elijah )

Yunus ( Jonah )

Danyal ( Daniel )

'Uzair ( Ezra )

Isra'il ( Israel ) ( though it was rare )

Mika'il ( Michael )

Idris ( i guess it's Enoch?)

**matmohair1** · September 28, 2014, 09:48 AM

Abd means servent, slave or worshiper
it can only be followed by the word god or a title referring to god

for example - abdulla - servent of god
Abdullrahman - servent of the most merciful

its if forbiden for muslims to follow the word abd with the ephitet of the Prophet Muhammad
because he is only a human - it is however allowed to be called by them

for example you cant have abd - alameen : servent of the trustworthy
because it can sometimes sound like your worshiping the prophet in Arabic

Ameen (not to be confused with amen) as a name is perfectly fine.
with out the need for an "Al" because it's basically a (the)
so a persons name can be Ameen not Al Ameen
which is (the) followed by a basic adjective - it doesn't sound like a name
(its all about the placement of words in the sentence that make all the difference)

all the biblical names you included are common
except for a few likeʾĀsif, Nuh & Hawwa which are very rare
or Danyal, Samwal, Samaan & Uzair which were more common in earlier times
but later used mostly by Christians and Jews.

most of your selection is great, however,
the following names are too rare if not seldom ever used,
mostly because of certain connotations
or simply because they weren't as popular as the others.
& are best not included...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Note: ʿAbd al-Muqīt
- mugit is unwanted or abhorred,
fix it by adding an H - Al Mugith - the savior

**Reimu Hakurei** · September 28, 2014, 09:54 AM

Thank you for your replies.
Now I can have a proper selection

**sumskilz** · September 28, 2014, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by Cyrene

your first section (Abd + a name of Allah) is ok, except that several names ( specifically: Abd al-ʿAẓīm, Abd aẓ-Ẓāhir, Abd al-Ḥafīẓ ) <--- these have incorrect spelling, in Classical Arabic they should be Abd al-ʿAtheem, Abd al-Dhāhir, Abd al-Hafīth

The symbol ẓ = ظ. Are you saying that they should be spelled with ث?

Also the symbol ī does equal the ee sound in English.

EDIT:

Third section: remove the ' before Ayyub, Asif, Ishaq, Ismāʿīl and Ibrahim since they stand for the Arabic letter Ayn ع which shouldn't exist before these names.

The symbol he is using there is the academic symbol for alif.

So...

ʿ = ع

ʾ = ا

**BM309K58SMERCH** · September 28, 2014, 12:43 PM

Theoporic names (more info)

96 names in your list. As far as I know, there are no Theoporic names using the Holy names "Mālik-ul-Mulk" and "Dhū-l-Jalāli wa-l-ʾikrām". Actually, some of the names here are not used, although they are technically Theoporic.
Below is your list, which are the Holy names with the prefix "Abd" attached.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

A more realistic list would consist of the following names:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Shia names/Others

I removed some of the names here that are included in the previous list. Some of these names are not allowed in Sunni Islam because the suffix "Abd/Abdul" is used with something that is not allowed (the Prophet, Mankind*...etc). Despite this, some (mainly) Shia Muslims still use these names.
I am curious as to where you got these names from...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Arabic versions of Biblical names

There is a more detailed list of Quranic names that can be found in the link. Includes all the names of the Prophets of the Abrahamic Religions. Here are links to the same list ordered differently:
-List of Quranic people mentioned by name
-List of people in both the Bible and the Quran

Generic Arabic names

Just generic masculine Arabic given names. Also includes names from the list above.

Looks like I'm a bit late.

**Reimu Hakurei** · September 28, 2014, 01:05 PM

Well, what I thought would be to have two sets of names....
A set of pan-Islamic names, or "Generic Muslim names", shared by all Muslim factions: the Moors/Bebers, the Egyptians/Fatimids/Arabs, the Turks and the Persians.
And a set of explicitly Arab names that are seldom used in other Muslim countries (like Turkey), names reserved for the Fatimids, and maybe the Moors too.
The Moors would have a mix of Islamic and Berber names, the Turks would have a mix of Islamic and Turkic names, etc.

Originally Posted by BM309K58SMERCH

Theoporic names (more info)

96 names in your list. As far as I know, there are no Theoporic names using the Holy names "Mālik-ul-Mulk" and "Dhū-l-Jalāli wa-l-ʾikrām". Actually, some of the names here are not used, although they are technically Theoporic.
Below is your list, which are the Holy names with the prefix "Abd" attached.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

A more realistic list would consist of the following names:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Thank you for the names. I will use them.

Originally Posted by BM309K58SMERCH

I am curious as to where you got these names from...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Well, I took this list, and just mixed them with Abd.
But as all of the posters here - including you - told me, it is wrong and incorrect.

Originally Posted by BM309K58SMERCH

Arabic versions of Biblical names

There is a more detailed list of Quranic names that can be found in the link. Includes all the names of the Prophets of the Abrahamic Religions. Here are links to the same list ordered differently:
-List of Quranic people mentioned by name
-List of people in both the Bible and the Quran

Generic Arabic names

Just generic masculine Arabic given names. Also includes names from the list above.

Looks like I'm a bit late.

Actually, there was a few Biblical names that I passed my eye before, so it was good that you brought the lists.

**Cyrene** · September 28, 2014, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by sumskilz

The symbol ẓ = ظ. Are you saying that they should be spelled with ث?

Not ث , rather ذ , it seemed like it was only Z, if that was the case then ذ is closer to ظ than ز .

will it appear in-game as ẓ or only z?

Originally Posted by sumskilz

EDIT: The symbol he is using there is the academic symbol for alif.

So...

ʿ = ع

ʾ = ا

i assume you mean إ ?

ا is pronounced as a weak A or even at times left out, (example: Smaʿeel )

the Alif in Ishmael on the other hand is إ which then is pronounced as Esmaʿeel , so why not put an E instead of ʾ ?

**sumskilz** · September 28, 2014, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Cyrene

Not ث , rather ذ , it seemed like it was only Z, if that was the case then ذ is closer to ظ than ز .

Okay, yeah I see that transliterated like dh sometimes (like Adhan), but the official academic way is ḏ.

Originally Posted by Cyrene

will it appear in-game as ẓ or only z?

I think you can get the actual symbols to show up.

Originally Posted by Cyrene

i assume you mean إ ?

I haven't formally studied Arabic, so I just know the academic transliteration because of studying other Semitic languages and Semitic comparative linguistics, but it seems there are some special rules for Arabic that I didn't know (but I just looked them up).

So actually:

ا = a or i (initial) ā (medial or final)

أ = ʾa or ʾu (initial) aʾ (medial or final)

إ = ʾi

آ = ʾā

Does that make more sense?

EDIT: I guess the main point is not the specific vowels so much as that they don't bother putting the alif sign in when it's weak like you said. Aramaic, Syriac, and Hebrew transliteration always puts it in even when it's weak, so I didn't realize that distinction was made in Arabic.

**Reimu Hakurei** · September 29, 2014, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by Cyrene

will it appear in-game as ẓ or only z?

It will be ẓ, I will include all the diacritics and academic symbols in the game.

**sumskilz** · September 29, 2014, 09:47 AM

The academic symbol for ش is š if you want to use it. That represents the sh sound.

**Cyrene** · September 29, 2014, 02:28 PM

what i still don't get though, is using academic symbols instead of their actual sound or pronunciation. like šams intead of Shams ( or šemeš instead of Shemesh in Hebrew )

**sumskilz** · September 29, 2014, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by Cyrene

what i still don't get though, is using academic symbols instead of their actual sound or pronunciation. like šams intead of Shams ( or šemeš instead of Shemesh in Hebrew )

The academic reason is to show the spelling in the original language and have something to indicate sounds that don't exist in English. For a mod, I think it's just a matter of preference. People who don't know the symbols might not like it or they might like learning about the language. I wouldn't argue one way or the other. My personal opinion would be to use them all or not use them at all. Though I think marking long and short vowels seems like a good thing to help people pronounce them no matter what, because I think everybody understands that.

**Gaius Marius Maximus** · September 30, 2014, 06:57 AM

Salam

http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/arabic

in this link you find must of arabic names with the Arabic translation and what is meant by the name

after you can use two names on the same character

example: Ahmed ibn Farouk
ibn = son of ...

or

example: Ahmed Abou Sofiane
Abou = father of ...

**Reimu Hakurei** · September 30, 2014, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Cyrene

what i still don't get though, is using academic symbols instead of their actual sound or pronunciation. like šams intead of Shams ( or šemeš instead of Shemesh in Hebrew )

Mixed. I use SH instead of š, but I keep the diacritics and the macrons, like ā and ẓ

**cenkiss** · October 06, 2014, 07:14 AM

What is an islamic name? Why do muslims around the world have such a big fascination with arabic?

**Cyrene** · October 06, 2014, 07:32 AM

The same reason why Christians name themselves John, Simon, Jesus etc etc

**LestaT** · October 08, 2014, 03:30 AM

Originally Posted by cenkiss

What is an islamic name? Why do muslims around the world have such a big fascination with arabic?

Good question and it's probably related to psychology representing the transformation of oneself from one phase to another ? It's not an obligation as far as I know to change name to Arabic when one becomes a muslims but muslims are encourage to use names which have good meanings doesn't matter in what language.