A Dictionary of Muslim Names

Though these Arabic Persian Islamic names are generally used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians there is an increasing trend among educated Indians irrespective of their religious affinities to choose soft-sounding Arabic names which have good meanings. Names in this dictionary have been arranged in English alphabetical order to permit quick and easy references by those who do not read Arabic script but who would nevertheless like to give their children soft sounding and meaningful names of Arabic Persian Urdu and Turkish origin.

This dictionary will serve as an excellent guide for responsible parents in their quests for appropriate and meaningful names for their children of which the latter may feel proud when they come to know their significance.

Young and inexperienced parents often give a name to their child without considering its meaning correct pronunciation and spelling or even its musicality. It is only one is a lifetime that a child can be named therefore it is only fitting that all parents make a well considered choice of appellation in terms of sense sound and orthography. It is with this precise aim that this dictionary of names has been prepared.

Muslims all over the world have mostly preferred Arabic Islamic names to names from Persian and other oriental languages like Turkish and Hebrew. In this selection however a good number of non Arabic names have also been included because of their present popularity with Muslims. We should stress here that the very best dictionaries have been consulted to elicit their most exquisite meanings. The majority listed in this selection as Turkish are actually Arabic these having been passed on to us selection Turkish written in Arabic script e.g. Rifat, Nikhat, Hashmat, etc. These can otherwise be written with a ta marboota or the round tas as this however is not in vogue. Certain names like Hiba Ama, Ayesha etc. have been written with a Marboots because they have been directly passed on to us through the Arabic Language and generally apply to women. Some Hebrew examples have also been included because they are the name of prophets.

In this compilation mostly single word names have been listed e.g. bashir, Basim, Fatima etc. however compound names can be made by prefixing suffixing or inserting additional components. For example Bashir can be used as part of compound as in Muhammad Bashir Ahmad or Bashir Ahmad Kashif or Kashif Bashir Muhammad Ahmad. However we should be careful in making composites of the kind for while Khalilullah or Khalilur Rahman meaning the friend of Allah are grammatically Rahman or Akhlaqullah i.e. Allah’s morals may be unacceptable.

With the changing times trends and needs are also changing on application forms and in official documents we are generally required to write a name consisting of three components i.e. first name middle name and last name. in this case the first is generally that of the person concerned. While the middle one is his father’s and the last is the name of his grandfather of his family. To save future generations form difficulties however his three component name need not necessarily conform to the foregoing formula in that the three parts or components may or may not refer either individually or jointly to parentage of the family. For example Muhammad Ahmad Saleem or Saleem Ahmad Khan or Tammez Fatina Bano or Fatima Bano Khan etc. can be names of Individuals without any of their components having familial connotations.

Typical Arabic sounds have been represented as they are ordinarily pronounced in English Persian Turkish or Urdu for example the hard ‘h” or the deep glottal a have been written as ‘h’ and ‘a’ as in Hamidullah and Abdullah only the deep glottal ‘k’ has been transcribed as ‘q’.

Though these Arabic Persian Islamic names are generally favored by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians there is an increasing trend among educated Indians irrespective of their religious affinities to choose mellifluous Arabic name which have good meanings. The entries in this dictionary have been arranged in English alphabetical order to permit quick and easy reference for those who do not read Arabic script but who would like nevertheless to give their children soft-sounding and meaningful names of Arabic Persian or Turkish origin.

We do hope that this dictionary will serve as an excellent guide for responsible parents in their quest for appropriate and meaningful names for their children of which the latter may feel proud when they come to know their significance.

I would like to thank my student Shah Nawaz, for compiling and appendix of names of historical importance such as those of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad etc. This can be found at the end of the Book.