Arabic Names

Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain, by Juliana de Luna

Lists of masculine and feminine given names and bynames from 8th to 12th century Andalusia records. This article includes an explanation of the general structure of medieval Arabic names.

Arabic Personal Names from the Futuwwah, by Mustapha al-Muhaddith ibn al-Saqaat

A list of men's given names and surnames from an early 11th century source. Originally published in the proceedings of the SCA's 1989 Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings.

Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices, by Da'ud ibn Auda.

A discussion of Arabic naming customs in our period, with lists of masculine and feminine given names and bynames taken from period sources. Also includes a table of Arabic translations of standard SCA titles and a bibliography. This article is an updated and extended version of the author's earlier Arabic Naming Practices and Period Names List. There are a few names in that article which are not in the new one; Da'ud was unable to re-document them for the new version and took the safe route of omitting them.

We have a couple of Academy reports that give good guidance on the construction of Mamluk names:

• Report 2901 discusses the general form of Mamluk names.
• Report 2932 includes a lengthy list of Mamluk given names.

Personal Names in Monumental Inscriptions From Persia and Transoxiana, by Ursula Georges

Names from inscriptions written in Arabic and found in greater Persia, dating from the ninth to the early twelfth century.

The One Hundred Most Beautiful Names of God, by Mustapha al-Muhaddith ibn al-Saqaat

A list of the attributes of Allah, which were used in the construction of laqabs, devotional epithets used by Muslim men in addition to or in place of their given names. Originally published in the proceedings of the SCA's 1989 Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings.

Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century, by Juliana de Luna

This article contains some examples of Islamic names.

Jewish Names in Ottoman Court Records (16th C Jerusalem), by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan

Names of Jewish women from records written in Arabic (and a few in Turkish).

Moorish Place-names in Portugal, by Dom Pedro de Alcazar

Arabic names of administrative districts in Portugal.

West African Names

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 3178

Lists masculine (and a few feminine) names from West Africa found in Arabic contexts.

Turkish Names

The term Turkish refers to several groups that used different dialects of Turkish and different sorts of names. This brief discussion explains some of the details.

Ottoman Turkish Names

Sixteenth-Century Turkish Names, by Ursula Georges

Lists of masculine and feminine names from court records from Istanbul.

Ottoman Cauldron-Makers, 1643-1644, by Ursula Georges

Analyzes the names of eighteen men in an Istanbul cauldron-makers' guild.

Personal Names in Warres Betweene the Turkes and the Persians, by Ursula Georges

A short list of names taken from a 16th century English translation of an Italian history.

This report from the Academy of S Gabriel discusses the names of harem slaves:

• Report 3023
• Report 3059 lists flower names used by Ottoman women, many of whom were harem members.
• Report 2936 lists a few more names of harem women (concubines and daughters of the Sultan).

This report from the Academy of Saint Gabriel discusses janissary names:

• Report 3084

A little more information is included in these reports:

• Report 1909: a list of Turkish Sultans
• Report 2975: a few Turkish occupational terms.

Jewish Names in Ottoman Court Records (16th C Jerusalem), by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan

Names of Jewish women from records written in Arabic (and a few in Turkish).

Other Turkish and Turkic

We have some Academy reports that deal with the construction of Mamluk names:

• Report 2901 discusses the general form of Mamluk names.
• Report 2932 includes a lengthy list of Mamluk given names.

Report 2204 includes a short list of feminine names from 15th century Turkish literature.

Persian Names

The introduction to the third article gives some useful general information on languages of Persia and Persian naming.

Personal Names in Monumental Inscriptions From Persia and Transoxiana, by Ursula Georges

Names of men and two women found in Arabic-language inscriptions from the ninth to early twelfth century.

Persian Masculine Names in the Nafah.ât al-uns, by Ursula Georges

An analysis of a couple of dozen names from a 15th century biographical dictionary.

Persian Feminine Names from the Safavid Period, by Ursula Georges, edited by Aryanhwy merch Catmael

A short list of names, mostly from the 15th-17th centuries.

Personal Names in Warres Betweene the Turkes and the Persians, by Ursula Georges

A short list of names taken from a 16th century English translation of an Italian history.

Names of Persia

This page is part of a web site on Zoroastrianism; the name lists are reasonably well researched and documented. Note that during and after the European Middle Ages, Persia was Muslim; so these lists are probably only applicable for re-creation of earlier cultures.

Here is what the author had to say about the name lists: The Avestan names all occur in the Avesta itself, and thus can be dated to around 1000 BCE or earlier. The Old Persian inscriptions are from around 500-600 BCE. The Parsi names are from Dosabhai Framji Karaka, History of the Parsis I, London 1884. pp. 162-3, and are names in use at that time. The Zoroastrian Irani names are from Farhang-e Behdinan, by Jamshid Sorush Sorushian, Tehran, 1956, and are names used in Kerman and Yazd at that time. You will find many of the names in current usage in the Pahlavi texts as well (ca. 9th ce CE), and in fact date to ancient times, e.g. Av. manush-chithra -> Pahl. Minochehr -> modern menucher. If you consider 9th ce[ntury] CE as medieval, I would suggest looking through the Pahlavi texts for more names.

Jewish Names in the Islamic World

Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo, by Juliana de Luna

A study of women's names in a collection of 11th to 13th century documents. Some of the documents are available, in Hebrew, in the Princeton Geniza Project.

The Medieval Names Archive is published by the Academy of Saint Gabriel and Joshua Mittleman.
© 1997-2004. Copyright on individual articles belongs to their authors.
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/islamic.shtml