Do all Muslim names have to be Arabic in origin?
Do all Muslim names have to be Arabic in origin?Over 85% of the world’s Muslims do not speak Arabic as their native language, and are not culturally Arabs at all. Is it acceptable to give a Muslim baby a Turkish, Persian, Indonesian, or other name from a different culture, instead of an Arabic name? Do non-Arab Muslim converts need to change their names?Answer: In Islam, the meaning of a name is the most important. Just because a name stems from a certain language or culture, doesn’t mean that it has a good Islamic meaning. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, several of his companions changed their own Arabic names, because the meanings of their names connoted wickedness. For example, someone named Harb (“war”) had his name changed to Silm (“peace”), and one named Al-Munba’ith (“one who lies”) became Al-Mudtaji’ (“one who stands up,” i.e. for the truth). So an Arabic name is not automatically an appropriate name for a Muslim. As a universal faith, Muslims come from many different
