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following guidelines may assist in setting parameters for searching on Arabic
names.
1. The custom of prefixing surnames / family names with "Al",
"El", "Abu", and "Abou," is often dropped. For example: Mohammed Al Amin is changed
to Mohammed Amin.
2. Other Arabic surnames / family names may be prefixed
with "Ben, "Bin" or "Bint". While these may sometimes be dropped, they are frequently
retaind and incorporated directly into the surname / family name. For example:
Bengadi.
3. There are a variety of spellings for some Arabic names.
As a rule of thumb, consonants "m" and "T" can be written in single or double
form and are often interchangeable. The letters "q" and "k" are also often interchangeable,
as are "o" and "u", and "a" and "u". The ""i" sound can also be represented using
"ee." For example: Mohammed can also be spelled Muhammed, Mohamed, Muhomod, Muhamet,
and Mahmet. Jilil can be spelled Jaleel. Mansour can be spelled Mansur. Haq and
be spelled Huq and Hak. Fazel can be written as Fadil.
4. Arabic names
can also be inadvertently reversed usually due to the Western practice on many
forms of seeking surname first, followed by first names. The Arabic practice of
writing from right to left only exacerbates this problem. For example "Modammed
Omar" can become for official purposes "Omar Mohammed."
5. It is common
in Arabic to give people honorific names, usually as the father or mother of a
person, usually their eldest son. For example, Abu Mohammed simply means the father
of Mohammed and Umm Mohammed means the mother of Mohammed. However, what occurs
is that a person may be known both by their name and by their honorific title,
for example, Ahmed Hassan can also be known as Ahmed Abu Mohammd, named after
his first born son.
6. The key discriminator in Arabic naming will always
be the date and place of birth of the person.
Information
from Australian site on the International Coalition Against Terrorism.
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