Arabic definite article
With the adoption of Christianity and eventually Islam, Egyptians began to take on names associated with these religions. Many Egyptian surnames also became Hellenized and Arabized, meaning they were altered to sound Greek or Arabic. This was done by the addition of the Greek suffix "-ios" to Egyptian names; for example, Pakhom to Pakhomios; or by adding the Arabic definite article "el" to names such as Baymoui to el-Bayoumi.