{"id":2130,"date":"2012-01-26T01:38:34","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T05:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=2130"},"modified":"2012-01-26T01:38:34","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T05:38:34","slug":"popular-names-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2012\/01\/26\/popular-names-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Names in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the U.S., a great deal of importance is placed on our names; as John Proctor says in The Crucible<\/em>, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How may I live without my name?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 People in the U.S. typically have names deriving from their family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s country of origin or their family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Like how \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPatrick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is a typical name from Ireland or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRebecca\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is a common Judeo-Christian name.\u00c2\u00a0 People in Middle Eastern countries have a similar tradition; with names stemming from background, religion, and often meaning.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, one popular name for boys is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAbdul,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcservant of God,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and a common name for girls is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAisha,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 coming from the name of Muhammad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite wife.\u00c2\u00a0 There are also historical allusions, like the popular Persian name \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCyrus,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 from Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire.\u00c2\u00a0 Other Arabic names include \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLela\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (born at night), \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcJamaal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (handsome), and Rasheed (thinker).\u00c2\u00a0 Some examples of Persian names are \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAleah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being), \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcKira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (sun), and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHussein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (good looking).<\/p>\n

(Shakira \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Grateful)<\/p>\n

Most of us are probably used to the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfirst name + middle name + last name\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 system.\u00c2\u00a0 Traditionally, our parents choose our first and middle names, and our last name comes from our father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side of the family.\u00c2\u00a0 Though many people from Middle Eastern countries have adopted a more Westernized approach, whether out of convenience or because of colonialism, there are traditional ways of writing names; however, they can vary depending on specific area.\u00c2\u00a0 One way is to set the name up as somewhat of a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfamily tree;\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for example, the name:<\/p>\n

Layla bint Hussein walud Malik Al-Qasim<\/em><\/p>\n

translates to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLayla, daughter of Hussein, son of Malik, of the Qasim family.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0 Like in traditional Western families, the children also take the name of the father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family.\u00c2\u00a0 Some families, particularly in the West, have shortened their names to be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfirst name + father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name + father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family name.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0 So, using the above example, the name would be Layla Hussein Qasim<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are many Middle Eastern names that have Western counterparts.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, the Persian name for Roxanne is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRoxana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and a form of Anthony is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAntwan.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This is partly because many names that we consider to be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWestern\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 actually come from the Middle East because of the nature of their Biblical origins.\u00c2\u00a0 Many times, Middle Easterners are caricatured by the West as having strange, long, or difficult to pronounce names.\u00c2\u00a0 Though it should always be kept in mind that American or European names may seem very unusual to someone from, say, Beirut, be careful.\u00c2\u00a0 You may be making fun of someone with the same name as yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the U.S., a great deal of importance is placed on our names; as John Proctor says in The Crucible, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How may I live without my name?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 People in the U.S. typically have names deriving from their family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s country of origin or their family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Like how \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPatrick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is a typical name from Ireland or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}