Arabic-L:LING:Naming Practices Responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 16 Nov 2005
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Naming Practices Response
2) Subject:Naming Practices Response
3) Subject:Naming Practices Response

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1)
Date: 16 Nov 2005
From:mustafa.mughazy at wmich.edu
Subject:Naming Practices Response

Dear Andrew,
This is such an interesting topic and I am sure you will get lots of
responses, so I will keep mine as brief as possible. You can contact me
directly if you have any questions or comments.

In the late 70s the Egyptian government issued a law banning compound
names. This way, people could no longer give their children
personal/first names such as Gamal Abd El-Nasser, Mustafa Kamel, Set
Abuuha, or Umm El-Kheir.

There was another law banning naming children after their fathers and
grandfathers, so no more Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad.

In most legal documents the ism thulaathi is used, but in birth
certificates, marriage certificates, military records, university
degrees and travel documents it the ism khumaasi that is used: a string
of five first names.

Some families still have laqab or in Colloquial Egyptian (na`ab), which
indicates their home town (e.g., TanTaawi, Aswaani, Kurdi, etc.) or
ancestral professions (e.g., el-gammaal, el-`aTTaar, el-qaSSaaS)

Naming practices among migrant Upper Egyptians in big cities:
Dual naming is a dying practice, where a child is given two names: one
for the public and a real name that is kept secret and used only for
government documents. The purpose of this practice is to protect
children from the evil eye and evil magic (3amal). I grew up knowing
this family of nine and only after fifteen years I realized that the
names I used to call them were all false names. Kaamil is actually
Mustafa, and 3ayda is actually 3awaaTif. They are all common names.

Another dying practice is giving children "ugly" names such as shaHHaat
"beggar", ghuraab "crow", daHduuH "lumpy", and malliim "penny". These
ugly names are supposed to protect them from the evil eye and magic
because there is nothing worth envy.

Also, some people used to give their male children female names or
gender neutral names to protect them from the evil eye. For example,
boys are named rida, intiSaar, 3iSmat, etc so that they can hide the
baby's gender from envious people. The rare cases involve clearly
feminine names. I knew a man named sanaa`, who had to change his name in
court to get married.

Sometimes, the circumstances of birth result in dual naming. I knew of a
family who had several infants die, so they named the one who survived
naagih "successful", but his real name is Muhammad.

Many twins have similar names: Hassan and Hussein, Nuur and nuura, etc.

Some families that believe in the qariin (the jin born at the same time
as the baby) hence the expression "ism allah 3aleek w-3ala uxtak), give
a similar name to the jin.

I hope this helps

Mustafa Mughazy
Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan
mustafa.mughazy at wmich.edu

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2)
Date: 16 Nov 2005
From:NKaloupek at compuserve.com
Subject:Naming Practices Response

I lived in the Arabian Gulf, at the border between Oman and the UAE,  
for about seven years. There the names are (ism)(father's ism) 
(grandfather's ism)(qabila). Generally this is used both informally  
and in official documents. Unlike in parts of the Middle East, I  
never heard anyone called "Abu XYZ" as a title of respect - everyone  
was simply called by their given name, even the oldest grandfather.  
The exception, of course, is the shukh - Sheikh Zayed, Sheikh  
Khalifa, etc.

I had one friend whose name was changed when he was young, and he was  
given the name of an uncle who had just passed away. However, I  
believe that his immediate family still frequently (but not always)  
called him by his original name.

Neal Kaloupek

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3)
Date: 16 Nov 2005
From:daniel.newman at durham.ac.uk
Subject:Naming Practices Response

Hello,

A source which offers very useful information on the development of  
Arabic names is A. F. L. Beeston's 'Arabic Nomenclature. A summary  
guide for beginners' (Oxford University Press, 1971), which, I seem  
to remember, is also available on the web in a PDF file.
Best wishes,

D. Newman

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End of Arabic-L:  16 Nov 2005