Parents are apt to call their children with nicknames, and in a good number of cases these names endure to the exclusion of real ones. While choosing nicknames or calling names care should be taken to see to it that one does not fall ashamed to be addressed by it in full grown age.
Some parents intentionally corrupt the names of their children, just in a fondly way, but later on this corruption goes so deep that it is beyond correction. As for instance Muhammad is turned into Mamad, Ahmed into Amad, Ebrahim into Ibu, Yusuf into Isop and so on. The parents are the root cause of such mutilations. They should avoid this sort of habit. Islamic philosophy of naming is that a child must have a good name, significant of good augury, congenial to human nature sweet, serene, noble, indicative of submission to the Almighty, avoiding names suggestive of ferociousness or sanguinity. The name should not smack of dirtiness, incivility, abuse or debasement.
The last but not least point to be kept in view while naming a child is that the Muslim identity should not be lost in strange and foreign names. The Muslims must be able to clearly make out whether a man or a woman belongs to Muslim society by just hearing their names. That is, the names must be familiar and relative to Muslims. There is nothing wrong in naming a girl as Rosy, or Rosetta, but on hearing it her identity is lost. Such un-Muslim names must be avoided even in nicknames or calling names. Every man and woman must have a distinct name but it is not possible to do so. Hence, human ingenuity and inventing power has attached prefixes and suffices to common names just to make out one from the other. This glossary also contends itself only with more common names in vogue among Muslims of Indo-Pak origin.
It is hoped the blog will prove useful to parents and relatives of new-borns to choose and select names of their choice from this glossary.
Humiliating and debasing names must also be eschewed as such names degrade a man and hurt his self-respect. Some sections give their children degrading names to cast off evil eyes and ward off the Angel of death. These are mere superstitions and revolting to the spirit of Islam.
Another point to be remembered in giving names is that bondman ship of a child must be attached to Allah alone and to none else. Hence, such names as Abdur Rasul, Ghulam Nabi, Ghulam Husain, Kalbe Ali (the dog of Ali), etc., must be shunned.
The Prophet (Sallallahu-alayhi-wasallam) ordered to give a good name to the child on the seventh day, and cleanse it of the dirt (i.le. the hair of the head) and perform Aqiqah.
It is advisable to give children names of Arabic origin. This tends to create a sense of attachment towards the language of the origin of Islam and also uniformity and familiarity amongst the Muslims of the world. One may reside in any part of the world but his name of Arabic origin will at once indicate that he is a Muslim.