Islamic Names
200+ names with meaning, origin, and scholarly notes
Arabic script with full diacritics. Quranic names marked. Companion and Prophet names with historical context. Filter by gender, origin and Quranic status.
Arabic script with full diacritics. Quranic names marked. Companion and Prophet names with historical context. Filter by gender, origin and Quranic status.
Choosing a good name is the right of every child. The Prophet ﷺ said: "You will be called by your names and your fathers' names on the Day of Resurrection, so give yourselves good names." (Abu Dawud 4948)
Recommended: Names of prophets, Companions, righteous people; names meaning servitude to Allah (Abdullah, Abdurrahman); names with praiseworthy meanings.
Disliked or forbidden: Names meaning slavery to other than Allah (Abd al-Nabi should be avoided); names implying negative characteristics; names of known enemies of Islam.
The Prophet ﷺ would change names with negative meanings. For example, he changed "Harb" (war) to "Silm" (peace) and "Asram" (one who cuts off) to something better.
The Quran mentions 25 prophets by name:
The Prophet ﷺ forbade names claiming purity or grandeur for oneself:
"Do not call your servant Rabaah, Yasaar, Naafi' or Aflah" (Muslim 2137) — because if asked "Is Aflah (successful one) there?" and he is not in, you would say "No", implying lack of success.
General principle: Avoid names with bad meanings, names of tyrants and oppressors, names that imply servitude to other than Allah alone.
Naming a child is one of the most important decisions Muslim parents make. The name a child carries throughout life should reflect good meaning, Islamic values, and ideally a connection to the rich tradition of prophetic names, Quranic words, and the names of the righteous Companions (Sahabah).
Quranic names — names that appear directly in the Quran or are derived from Quranic words — carry a special blessing. Names like Maryam (the only woman named in the Quran), Ibrahim, Yusuf, Dawud and Zakariyya directly connect a child to the stories and characters of the Quran.
Our database of 200+ Islamic names includes the Arabic script with full tashkeel (diacritical marks) for accurate pronunciation, the root meaning in English, the origin (Arabic, Quranic, Companion names), the gender, and scholarly notes with Quranic or hadith references where applicable.
The best names are those that carry meaning of worship and servitude: Abdullah (servant of Allah), Abdurrahman (servant of the Most Merciful), and the names of the prophets. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself had multiple names including Ahmad, Mahmud, and Al-Hashir.