Arabic name
Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Most Arabs have not had given/middle/family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughout the Arab world. Name structure. The " () is the given name, first name, or personal name; e.g. "Ahmad" or "Fatimah". Most Arabic names have meaning as ordinary adjectives and nouns, and are often aspirational of character. For example, "Muhammad" means 'Praiseworthy' and "Ali" means 'Exalted' or 'High'. The syntactic context will generally differentiate the name from the noun/adjective. However Arabic newspapers will occasionally place names in  brackets, or quotation marks, to avoid confusion. Indeed, such is the popularity of the name "Muhammad" throughout parts of Africa, Arabia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia, it is often represented by the abbreviation "Md.", "Mohd.", "Muhd.", or just "M.". In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, due to its almost ubiquitous use as a first name, a person will often be referred to by their second name: The "nasab" () is a patronymic or series of patronymics. It indicates the person's heritage by the word "ibn" ( "son of", colloquially "bin") or "ibnat" ("daughter of", also  bint, abbreviated "bte."). Ibn Khaldun () means "son of Khaldun". Khaldun is the father's personal name or, in this particular case, the name of a remote ancestor. Several "nasab" names can follow in a chain to trace a person's ancestry backwards in time, as was important in the tribal society of the ancient Arabs, both for purposes of identification and for socio-political interactions. Today, however, "ibn" or "bint" is no longer used (unless it is the official naming style in a country, region, etc.: Adnen bin Abdallah). The plural is ' for males and ' for females. However, ' or ' is  tribal and encompasses both sexes. The "laqab" (), pl. "alqāb" () can be translated to English as agnomen; cognomen; nickname; title, honorific; last name, surname, family name. The "laqab" is typically descriptive of the person. An example is the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (of "One Thousand and One Nights" fame), which uses the definite article "al-". ' is the Arabic version of the name "Aaron" and ' means "the Rightly-Guided". Another common form of are compounds ending with (), ('of the State'), ('of the Kingdom'), or ('of Islam'). Examples include Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, Shams al-Dīn, Nūr al-Dīn, Nāṣir al-Dawla, Niẓām  al-Mulk, Sayf al-Islām. In ancient Arab societies, use of a "laqab" was common, but today is restricted to the surname, or family name, of birth. The () surname could be an everyday name, but is mostly the name of the ancestral tribe, city, country, or any other term used to show relevance. It follows a family through several generations. It most often appears as a demonym, for example , meaning that the person is of Baghdad or descendant of people from Baghdad. The "laqab" and "nisbah" are similar in use, and hence, a name rarely contains both. A "kunya" (, "kunyah ) is a teknonym in Arabic names. It is a component of an Arabic name, a type of epithet, in theory referring to the bearer's first-born son or daughter. By extension, it may also have hypothetical or metaphorical references, e.g. in a nom de guerre" or a nickname, without literally referring to a son or a daughter. For example, Sabri Khalil al-Banna was known as Abu Nidal, "father of struggle". Use of a kunya implies a familiar but respectful setting. A kunya is expressed by the use of "abū" (father) or "umm" (mother) in a genitive construction, i.e.  father of or "mother of" as an honorific in place of or alongside given names in the Arab world. A kunya may also be a nickname expressing the attachment of an individual to a certain thing, as in Abu Bakr, "father of the camel foal", given because of this person's kindness towards camels. Common naming practices. Arab Muslim. A common name-form among Arab Muslims is the prefix ' ("Worshipper", ') combined with the name of Allah (God), " ( "Worshipper of God"), or with one of the epithets of Allah. As a mark of deference, " is usually not conjoined with the prophets ' names. Nonetheless, such names are accepted in some areas. Its use is not exclusive to Muslims and throughout all Arab countries, the name "Abdel-Massih", "Servant of Christ", is a common Christian last name. Converts to Islam may often continue using the native non-Arabic non-Islamic names that are without any polytheistic connotation, or association. Arab Christian. To an extent Arab Christians have names indistinguishable from Muslims, except some explicitly Islamic names, e.g. "Muhammad". Some common Christian names are: Dynastic or family name. Some people, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, when descendant of a famous ancestor, start their last  name with "Āl" "family, clan" (), like the House of Saud "Āl Ṣaʻūd" or Al ash-Sheikh ("family of the sheikh"). "Āl" is distinct from the definite article (). If a reliably-sourced version of the Arabic spelling includes (as a separate graphic word), then this is a case of the definite article, so (capitalised and followed by a space, not a hyphen) should be used. "Ahl", which has a similar meaning, is sometimes used and should be used if the Arabic spelling is . Dynasty membership alone does necessarily imply that the dynastic is used – e.g. Bashar al-Assad. Example. Muḥammad ibn  Salmān ibn Amīn al-Fārisī "Muḥammad, son of Salmān, son of Amīn, the Persian" This person would simply be referred to as "Muḥammad" or by his kunya, which relates him to his first-born son, e.g. "Abū Karīm" "father of Karīm". To signify respect or to specify which Muḥammad one is speaking about, the name could be lengthened to the extent necessary or desired. Common mistakes. Non-Arabic speakers often make these mistakes: Arab family naming convention. In Arabic culture, as in many parts of the world, a person's ancestry and family name are very important. An example is  explained below. Assume a man is called "Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan". Hence, "Saleh ibn Tariq ibn Khalid al-Fulan" translates as "Saleh, son of Tariq, son of Khalid; who is of the family of al-Fulan." The Arabic for "daughter of" is "bint." A woman with the name "Fatimah bint Tariq ibn Khalid al-Goswami" translates as "Fatimah, daughter of Tariq, son of Khalid; who is of the family al-Goswami." In this case, ibn and bint are included in the official naming. Most Arab countries today, however, do not use 'ibn' and 'bint' in their naming  system. If Saleh were an Egyptian, he would be called "Saleh Tariq Khalid al-Fulan" and Fatimah would be "Fatimah Tariq Khalid al-Goswami." If Saleh marries a wife (who would keep her own maiden, family, and surnames), their children will take Saleh's family name. Therefore, their son Mohammed would be called "Mohammed ibn Saleh ibn Tariq al-Fulan." However, not all Arab countries use the name in its full length, but conventionally use two- and three-word names, and sometimes four-word names in official or legal matters. Thus the first name is the personal name, the middle  name is the father's name and the last name is the family name. Arabic names and their Biblical equivalent. The Arabic names listed below are used in the Arab world with correspondent Hebrew, English, Syriac and Greek equivalents in many cases. Most are derived from Syriac transliterations of the Hebrew Bible. Indexing. According to the "Chicago Manual of Style", Arabic names are indexed by their surnames. Names may be alphabetized under "Abu" "Abd" and "ibn", while names are not alphabetized under "al-" and "el-" and are instead alphabetized under the following element.