Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 754

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 754

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/754

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on "Jaida," which you wanted to use as an Arabic name.

<Ja'ida> originally meant "curly-haired." (1) However, the meaning of a name wasn't always important to the parents who named their children. Thus, even people who don't have curly hair could be named <Ja'ida>.

You may have noticed that we spelled the name <Ja'ida> rather than <Jaida>. This is the more standard transliteration of the name from Arabic to the Roman alphabet. The apostrophe represents the letter 'ayn, which is a "stop." It's not easy to describe quite what this means, but you can get close by pronouncing the name with three syllables ,\jah-EE-da\ rather than two, \JAI-da.\

We thought you might like information on the bynames of Arab women. Women without children were often called "bint <father's name>" which means "daughter of..." (for example, <Ja'ida bint Hassan>, meaning "Ja'ida, Hassan's daughter." Women with children were usually called "umm <child's name>" (for example, <Ja'ida umm Uthmar>, meaning "Ja'ida, Uthmar's mother."

Da'ud ibn Auda, Sion Andreas, and Arval Benicoeur contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Email from Sion Andreas