1,195 Names of Arabic Origin

What counts as an Arabic name here

A published name belongs to this page when any part of its origin label matches the word "arabic". Labels that also mention another language, for example Arabic + Turkic, count here too.

889 of the 1,195 names have only Arabic parts. The other 306 combine Arabic with Turkic (181), Persian (113) and Hebrew (17), so they also appear on those origin pages.

Background: Arabic names in Turkic languages

Arabic names reached the Turkic-speaking world with Islam, which spread among Turkic peoples from roughly the tenth century onward. Names of the Prophet's family, of figures from the Quran and of divine attributes, such as the many names that begin with Abd (servant), became part of everyday naming, and most were adapted to local pronunciation and spelling.

Arabic is the largest origin group in our data, which reflects how widely these names are used rather than how old they are. A name's origin describes where its words come from; it does not say which people use it, so an Arabic name can be as much a Kazakh or Uyghur name as any native word.

Which languages use Arabic names

Arabic names are recorded most often for Kazakh (408 names), Turkish (401 names) and Uyghur (376 names). In all, 10 languages have at least one Arabic name in our data. A name used in several languages is counted once for each, so these numbers add up to more than 1,195.

Use the language buttons above the list to see only one language; they appear when the language has at least 12 Arabic names.

What Arabic names mean

By documented meaning theme, Arabic names fall most often under leadership and nobility (72), light (54), faith and devotion (37) and beauty (35). Of the 1,195 names, 585 (49 percent) have a Documented meaning, 73 are Likely and 537 are Editorial.

Building blocks that recur in these names include nur (light), bek (lord, chief, master (title)), din (religion, faith) and can (soul; life); each one links to its own page with the other names that use it.

Girl, boy and unisex Arabic names

The list holds 303 girl names, 836 boy names and 55 unisex names, and 1 whose gender is not classified. Gender is recorded per language, so a name that is unisex in one language can be used for one gender only in another; the table on each name page shows this.

Choosing an Arabic name

Because Arabic names are adopted by many languages, one name can have several spellings and pronunciations. Before choosing, compare the spelling table with the form used by your family's language, and check whether the name carries a religious meaning you want; the meaning theme filter on this page shows that quickly.

Questions and answers