NAMES, SURNAMES. Arabic Ism (اسم), Laqab (لقب), Kunyah (كنية). The teaching of Muḥammad very greatly influenced the nomenclature of his followers, as is evident from the chapter devoted to the Traditions on the subject in the Mishkātu ʾl-Masābiḥ, entitled “Bābu ʾl-Asāmī,” book xxii. ch. viii., from which are extracted the following traditional sayings of Muḥammad:—
“The best names in the sight of God are ʿAbdu ʾllāh (the servant of God), ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān (the servant of the Merciful One).”
“You must not name your slaves Yasār (abundance), Rabāḥ (gain), Najīḥ (prosperous), Aflaḥ (felicitous), because if you ask after one of these your domestic servants, and he be not present, the negative reply will express that abundance, or gain, or prosperity, or felicity, are not in your dwelling.”
“The vilest name you can give a human being is Maliku ʾl-Amlāk, or ‘King of Kings,’ because no one can be such but God Himself.”
“You must not say to your slaves, ‘My slave,’ or ‘My slave girl,’ for all your slaves are God’s, but say, ‘My boy,’ or ‘My girl,’ or ‘My youth,’ or ‘My lass.’ And a slave must not say to his master, Yā Rabbī! (i.e. My Lord!), but he may say to him Yā Saiyidī! (My Chief!).”
“Call your children after your Prophet (i.e. Muḥammad), but the names God likes best are ʿAbdu ʾllāh (servant of God), ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān, and the next best names are Ḥāris̤ (husbandman), and Humām (high-minded). The worst of names is Ḥarb (enmity), or Murrah (bitterness).” [Heb. מָרָה, see [Ruth i. 20].]
Shuraiḥ ibn Hāniʾ relates that his father came to the Prophet with his tribe, and the Prophet heard them calling him Abū ʾl-Ḥakam. When the Prophet said, “Why do you call him so? Ḥakam, ‘Ruler,’ is an attribute of God.” And the Prophet ordered him to call himself Abū Shuraiḥ, i.e. the father of Shuraiḥ, his eldest son.
Modified, somewhat, by these injunctions of the Prophet, Muḥammadan names have still continued to be ordered amongst learned Muslims according to the ancient custom of Arabia. Persons are often named—
(1) By a single name, as Muḥammad, Mūsā (Moses), Dāʾūd (David), Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Ḥasan, Aḥmad.
(2) As the father or mother of certain persons, e.g. Abū Dāʾūd, the father of David; or Ummu Salimah, the mother of Salimah.