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50 Names Banned by Law in Saudi Arabia

  • Publish date: Thursday، 11 May 2017 Last update: Sunday، 05 December 2021
50 Names Banned by Law in Saudi Arabia

If you deliver a baby in Saudi Arabia today, you will have to be careful about naming him/her. The Saudi interior ministry has issued a list of 50 names that are banned from naming, and according to local newspapers, the names contradict the Islamic and traditional culture of the country.

In this context, the “Gulf News” mentioned that these names fall under three main categories; names that contradict with or offend Islam, names that are associated with royalty, and ones that have a non-Arab or non-Muslim origin.

It is also noticed that some of the names on the list do not fall under any of these three categories; rather, they have been justified by the ministry as “inappropriate.” This makes the matter up for interpretations. For example, Benjamin is the name of prophet Jacob’s (Yaqoub) son according to the Islamic tradition. Yet, the name is banned, and when we dig deeper, we realize that it is also the name of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thus, to what extent is this fact related to the reason it was banned?

On the other hand, some names that fall under the first category, which is offensive to Islam, are names that start with “Abd” meaning “the worshiper of” in Arabic. This word usually comes before one of God’s 99 names. Therefore, if the word after “Abd” does not refer to God, it is considered to be illegal even if it refers to the prophet.

50 Names Banned by Law in Saudi Arabia

The list of names included:

Abd Al-Ati

Abd Al-Maslah

Abd Al-Mueen

Abd Al-Nabi

Abd Al-Nasser

Abd Al-Rassul

Abrar

Al-Mamlaka

Alice

Amir

Aram

Barah

Basmla

Basseel

Bayan

Benjamin

Eline

Eynar

Gabrielle

Iman

Kebrel

Larine

Lauren

Linda

Malak

Malika

Maline

Malktina

Mamlaka

Mankhar

Maya

Nabi

Naniya

Nardine

Narine

Poland

Rama

Randa

Reelam

Rital

Sandy

Setaf

Sumu

Tabarak

Taline

Tilaj

Yara

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