ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1123 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1123 ************************************ From: 17 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote to us on behalf of your lady, who found the name on our website and wanted documentation for this name, information about its meaning, and information about Arabic surnames. We'll answer these questions in that order. As for documenting the name , it is possible to print out one of our web articles and use it as documentation. Just be sure to mention the URL and include the full web page text, highlighting the name . For all practical purposes, the meaning of is not relevant. In most cultures within the scope of the Society, given names didn't have meanings. Nearly all names ultimately derived from normal words in some language, but it was very rare for people to continue to associate a given name with meaning of those ancient root words. Once these words came to be used as names, they were merely names and no longer had a deeper meaning. In modern English, we know that the word is related to the name , but in normal use, we don't expect the plant to have anything to do with a person who uses the name. If the connection is less obvious, the meaning is completely irrelevent. For example, derives from an Aramaic word that means "twin", but we hardly expect every Thomas today to be a twin. A woman in Islam would almost always have been known as her father's daughter, e.g. , or as her son's mother, . These are bynames, individual descriptive phrases that explain who you are. This is different from modern naming practices which use surnames that are inherited. The simplest way to choose a byname would thus be to select an Arabic man's name and put it into one of these constructions. Other kinds of bynames were used which identified a person by place of residence, occupation, or some personal characteristic, but these were not at all common for women. If you'd like to know more about these possibilities, or if you have a particular byname in mind, please write us again. For more on Arabic Naming Practices, see any of the following articles: ("KWHS" stands for "Known World Heraldic Symposium".) Da'ud ibn Auda, _Arabic Naming Practices_, 1987 West Kingdom KWHS, vol I, p.39 Da'ud ibn Auda, _Arabic Names and Naming Practices_, 1993 Middle KWHS, vol II, p.23 Da'ud ibn Auda, _A List of Arabic Women's Names_ (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel, 1996) http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/arabicwomen.html Da'ud ibn Auda, _Arabic Naming Practices and Period Names List_ In: _The Islamic World_, Compleat Aanachronist #51 (SCA, 1990) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/daud/arabic-naming/ We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Arval Benicouer and Elsbeth Anne Roth contributed to this letter. In service, --Walraven van Nijmegen Academy of S. Gabriel