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What do you think is the most quintessential Pakistani name?

Giannis

Giannis

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For both genders.

Every nation has certain names that are stereotypical, the Greeks got George, the Turks have Mehmet, the Iranians have Raza, the Germans have Frederick and the English have John. I was wondering what name do you think is like the most stereotypical Pakistani name?
 
NADRA would know, but I doubt if they’ve ever released the list of most popular names. If I had to guess, I would go for Ali as the most common masculine name: cuts across ethnic and sectarian divides, and has never been out of vogue. I’m sure we all know multiple Ali’s.
 
P.S. A vast number of Pakistani men have Muhammad as part of their name, but they rarely go by it. If it were to be considered their given name, instead of the first part of the commonly occurring compound first name, it would be the clear winner.
 
Depends. In terms of pure frequency it would be Mohammad something as the first name. But that’s not uniquely Pakistani as you’ll find that elsewhere in the Arab world.

So in my opinion it would be something like Taimur.
 
Title as well as a name
Shah, Mian, Chaudhary

Otherwise
Ghulam (Rasool, Nabi, Mustafa)

True winner is Iqbal. Versatility and is pretty much exclusive to Pakistan.
 
PetroDollars said:
different for regions

for Kashmir its musa
for pathans its khan
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No one goes by Khan. Never heard of Musa for Kashmiris, are you talking about the Pakistani side? I think Nabi, Burhan and Muzaffar are common names in Indian occupied Kashmir.
 
Definitely Ahmed, Omer and Ali for boys and Maryam, Ayesha and Fatima for girls.

In my life I have personally come across atleast a dozen people with each of those names.
 
I think Shazia seems like such a basic Pakistani females name, like can't think of any other nationality with that name.
 
I always thought Faisal was quite quintessential.
 
Kroll said:
I always thought Faisal was quite quintessential.
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Not really. There were few if any Faisals in Pakistan before King Faisal achieved cult stardom, especially around 1974-1975. There were even fewer Sauds, Jasims and Tamims.
 
1974 was when the OIC met in Lahore amidst great fanfare. Several names became popular afterwards: primarily Faisal and Yasir, but also Zulfiqar, which was common enough anyhow, and to a lesser extent Moammar and Mujeeb. Faisals and Yasirs are now a dime a dozen in Pakistan.
 
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Nostalgic said:
1974 was when the OIC met in Lahore amidst great fanfare. Several names became popular afterwards: primarily Faisal and Yasir, but also Zulfiqar, which was common enough anyhow, and to a lesser extent Moammar and Mujeeb. Faisals and Yasirs are now a dime a dozen in Pakistan.
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I hear the name Ertugrul will gain popularity in Pakistan in the next year.
 
Giannis said:
I hear the name Ertugrul will gain popularity in Pakistan in the next year.
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It could be like Arsalan, another Turkic name popular in Pakistan. Babar and Taimur are very popular too.
 
I find it interesting that two generations back people would name a kid in a way that it will share many letters of siblings' names.

Abid Majid
Adil, Aamir, Aaqil
imran, irfan, rizwan, Adnan
Akram, Aslam , Asghar , Akbar
Wasif, Asif, Arif
Adeel, Shakeel , Aqeel, Sajeel , Nabeel
taqeer, Qadeer
Asim , Qasim etc.

I am sure there will be many more such examples.
 
Nadia is a common feminine name, which unlike the others mentioned, isn’t of Islamic origin. It gained immense popularity after the 1976 Olympics and the performances of the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. There were no Nadias in Pakistan prior to 1976. All the Nadias you may know are no older than 44. I don’t know if it is still popular with parents, but growing up during the 80s and 90s, one came across several Nadias.
 
desirous of desire said:
I find it interesting that two generations back people would name a kid in a way that it will share many letters of siblings' names.

Abid Majid
Adil, Aamir, Aaqil
imran, irfan, rizwan, Adnan
Akram, Aslam , Asghar , Akbar
Wasif, Asif, Arif
Adeel, Shakeel , Aqeel, Sajeel , Nabeel
taqeer, Qadeer
Asim , Qasim etc.

I am sure there will be many more such examples.
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But if parents name their kids in a way that it goes along the same tone as theirs, The names will sound good together.

Abid Majid, Aamir Aaqil, Asim Qasim, Sajeel Shakeel, Asif Arif etc
 
Giannis said:
I hear the name Ertugrul will gain popularity in Pakistan in the next year.
Click to expand...

There was a kid named Tugrul in my gully and school in Karachi, nobody could wrap their head around his name and he often had to repeat it a few times when meeting someone for the first time. I guess he might be having a laugh now. Funnily all his siblings also had Turkish names because one of his grandparents was Turkish origin.
 
desirous of desire said:
I find it interesting that two generations back people would name a kid in a way that it will share many letters of siblings' names.

Abid Majid
Adil, Aamir, Aaqil
imran, irfan, rizwan, Adnan
Akram, Aslam , Asghar , Akbar
Wasif, Asif, Arif
Adeel, Shakeel , Aqeel, Sajeel , Nabeel
taqeer, Qadeer
Asim , Qasim etc.

I am sure there will be many more such examples.
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Another pattern that was common once were the names of the first six Mughal emperors. This of course requires six sons, which not many people had. A shopkeeper in my town had sons named Babar, Humayun, Akbar and Jehangir. They had to wait until Babar had kids of his own to get to Shahjahan and Aurangzeb.
 
desirous of desire said:
I find it interesting that two generations back people would name a kid in a way that it will share many letters of siblings' names.

Abid Majid
Adil, Aamir, Aaqil
imran, irfan, rizwan, Adnan
Akram, Aslam , Asghar , Akbar
Wasif, Asif, Arif
Adeel, Shakeel , Aqeel, Sajeel , Nabeel
taqeer, Qadeer
Asim , Qasim etc.

I am sure there will be many more such examples.
Click to expand...

Well spotted, I know three brothers Jawad, Jawaid and Junaid, the parents named their sister Sara. :danish
 
Syed1 said:
There was a kid named Tugrul in my gully and school in Karachi, nobody could wrap their head around his name and he often had to repeat it a few times when meeting someone for the first time. I guess he might be having a laugh now. Funnily all his siblings also had Turkish names because one of his grandparents was Turkish origin.
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I knew a Tughrul too. He had a little speech memorized explaining his name, including the story that the eponymous Tughrul Baig had a pyramid made of the skulls of the people he had slain in battle.
 
Nostalgic said:
Another pattern that was common once were the names of the first six Mughal emperors. This of course requires six sons, which not many people had. A shopkeeper in my town had sons named Babar, Humayun, Akbar and Jehangir. They had to wait until Babar had kids of his own to get to Shahjahan and Aurangzeb.
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Another pattern i think are the names of first four caliphs. Abubakr, Umar, Usman and Ali. Abubakr is least common among them.
 
desirous of desire said:
Another pattern i think are the names of first four caliphs. Abubakr, Umar, Usman and Ali. Abubakr is least common among them.
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Correct. Interestingly enough, this would extend to cousins and not just brothers, so if there were boys in the family with three of those names, the next one born had to be named the fourth, invariably Abu Bakar.
 
Other patterns that have probably gone out of vogue were pairs from literature or history: Mehmood and Ayyaz; Rustam and Sohrab; Mamoon and Amin; Shahab and Saqib. Of these, only Mamoon and Amin were brothers, the sons of Haroon al Rashid, but they ended up at war with each other. Mehmood and Ayyaz were master and slave (and rumored lovers). Rustam and Sohrab were father and son. Shahab and Saqib are derived from the phrase Shahab-e-Saqib, i.e. comets or shooting stars.
 
There must be some Saima getting married to Saim and Muneera with Muneer .
I have an example of Rasheedan married to rasheed in my relatives. People would call them Cheedaan and cheeda .
Alos,We used to have females with names such as Hanifan, Hafeezan as if they belonged to Hanif and Hafeez .
 
desirous of desire said:
There must be some Saima getting married to Saim and Muneera with Muneer .
I have an example of Rasheedan married to rasheed in my relatives. People would call them Cheedaan and cheeda .
Alos,We used to have females with names such as Hanifan, Hafeezan as if they belonged to Hanif and Hafeez .
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I know a Khalid married to a Khalida.
 
Let’s not forget Ibrahim and Ismail: father and son, but often the names of brothers.

We’ve even had a Prime Minister with both those names: Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar.
 
Moving on to the Pakhtuns, Biblical names are far more prevalent than among the other ethnicities. There was once the belief that the Pakhtuns were one of the fabled Lost Tribes of Israel, which probably has something to do with it. Musa, Eisa, Daud, Suleiman, Ibrahim, Ismail et al., while not unknown in other parts of Pakistan, are for more likely to occur among the Pakhtuns.
 
In India, names like Shahrukh Khan, Amir Khan, Salman Kham etc have become very popular.

Most of the muslims in India are just poor and do delivery services or drive auto cabs etc.

Whenever I book a can or order food delivery it says, Shahrukh Khan is coming to your home shortly and it's very funny that way.
 
freelance_cricketer said:
In India, names like Shahrukh Khan, Amir Khan, Salman Kham etc have become very popular.

Most of the muslims in India are just poor and do delivery services or drive auto cabs etc.

Whenever I book a can or order food delivery it says, Shahrukh Khan is coming to your home shortly and it's very funny that way.
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Does the thread title ask about names in India?
 
More on naming patterns and conventions: I’ve long felt that no one does it better than the Sadaat, Shia and Sunni alike. You’ll find several commonly occurring patterns:

Sons of Abdul Muttalib: Abdullah, Abu Talib, Hamza, Abbas.
Sons of Abu Talib: Ali, Jafar, Aqeel.
Sons of Ali: Hassan, Hussain, Mohsin, Abbas.
Sons of the Prophet: Tayyab, Tahir, Ibrahim, Qasim.
Sons of Hussain: Ali Akbar, Ali Asghar, Ali Zainulabedein. They would go by Akbar, Asghar and Zain. Frequently, new friends of one of them would call them on their home phone and ask for Ali, only for the parents to ask “which one?”
The 12 Imams: here, there are patterns within patterns. Four of the imams were Ali, so you could have Ali, Zain, Raza and Hadi, or Zain could be Sajjad and Hadi could be Naqi, or all four brothers could have Ali as part of their names, so Ali Murtaza, Ali Sajjad, Ali Raza, Ali Naqi. Also not unknown was to have two brothers named after the titles of the same imam, so you could have Zain and Sajjad; Taqi and Jawwad; Naqi and Hadi etc.
 
Rizwan....funnily the correct pronunciation of the Arabic name is Radwan but desis in their usual style love to butcher all Arab names
 
sshakir411 said:
Rizwan....funnily the correct pronunciation of the Arabic name is Radwan but desis in their usual style love to butcher all Arab names
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What’s more, Rizwan/Radwan is plural. There are other popular plural names such Hasnain, Saqlain etc.
 
sshakir411 said:
Rizwan....funnily the correct pronunciation of the Arabic name is Radwan but desis in their usual style love to butcher all Arab names
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like many Muslim desi names this actually came via the Persian pronunciation
 
I’ve met atleast a dozen Salmans
 
Let’s not forget names beginning with Abdul, which is Arabic for “slave of,” and ending with one of the 99 names of Allah. Some are incredibly common: Rehman, Razzaq, Basit, Jabbar et al, not to mention Abdullah, perhaps the most common. However, there are some rare ones. I had a friend named Kashif, but one day I happened to glance at his ID Card and his full name was Abdul Kashif. Turns out Al-Kashif is one of the 99 names, just not one most people are aware of. Another rare one is Abdul Ali, as in Lt Gen Abdul Ali Malik, hero of the Chawinda battle in 1965. As it happens, Al-Ali is one of the 99 names as well.
 
Oh, and then there are the Ghulams, invariably ending with one of the 99 names of the Prophet. Ghulam Ali and Ghulam Abbas too are common enough, but a rare one is Ghulam Umar, as in Asad Umar’s father. I don’t think I’ve come across any others by that name.
 
Apart from the obvious names, Osama:yuvi, Noman and Hamza are quite common among 90s/2000 generation.
 
Based on cricket

How about Amir or Ameer and Shoaib?

M.Amir
Amir Sohail
Amir Khan the boxer
Amir Elahi

Shoaib Md
Shoaib Akthar
Shoaib Maqsood
Shoaib Malik


Wasn’t there a Shoaib Khan in there somewhere too?
 
Speaking of naming themes for kids, one of my uncles has all 4 of his kids with names starting with the letter M like his wife lol, another one of my uncles gave all 5 of his sons names that are different variations of the word "King" in Farsi.
 
Giannis said:
If it's a common name.
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Persian-origin names remain popular, just not as popular as they once were. Sheheryar, Asfandyar, Kamran occur frequently still, but Khusro, Pervez, Behram, Rustam etc are less prevalent today than in the previous generations.
 
We used to hear names such as meraj deen, charag deen and Deen Muhammad of our grandparents but they have gone out of fashion now.Deen Muhammad particularly stands out for me because we, now, always use "Muhammad" as the first part of our names.
 
Not quintessential but defn specific to Pak is Zain for guys and Sidra for girls, never heard Muslims from other countries with that name.
 
Is Misbah a common name in Pakistan? I have never heard that name among Indian Muslims and when I google the name I am only returning the obvious result :Misbah and a couple of LinkedIn profiles of girls with name spelt without the “H” at the end.
 
Quintessential Pakistani name for me is one which you find almost exclusively among Pakistani, and rarely among Indians, Bengalis,Iranians or Afghans

Khurram
Waqas
Aitzaz
Kamran
Safdar

Names like Irfan, Zeeshan are there among Indian Muslims as well compared to the ones above which are rarer in India
 
Gulrukh, Zunaira, Shanzay, Shehrbano, Nusrat. These are some girl names that I've only seen with Pakistani girls.
 
Awkward moment when Naveen and Parveen are guy names in humsaya mulk
 
In my dad's family there were four sisters Shaheen, Shahnaz, Shaista and Shahwaar. This trend of having kids with rhyming names has sadly gone away.
 
Syed1 said:
Awkward moment when Naveen and Parveen are guy names in humsaya mulk
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Slight correction. It is pronounced pra like the punjabi word. It’s pronounced Pra-veen not Par veen like Parveen Babi the Indian actress. Also interesting didn’t know Naveen is a Girl name among Pakistani girls.

I also find it adorable in a funny way the way Imran Khan says Moody like Tom Moody it is pronounced Modi phonetically speaking Mo-Dee. He gets the spelling right every time on Twitter though :)
 
Local.Dada said:
Is Misbah a common name in Pakistan? I have never heard that name among Indian Muslims and when I google the name I am only returning the obvious result :Misbah and a couple of LinkedIn profiles of girls with name spelt without the “H” at the end.
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yeah I know like 4 girls named Misbah but it's a rare name
 
Syed1 said:
Awkward moment when Naveen and Parveen are guy names in humsaya mulk
Click to expand...

That's funny cause those are feminine names, Pakistanis get those names from Farsi but I'm sure they mean something else in Indian.
 
JaDed said:
Not quintessential but defn specific to Pak is Zain for guys and Sidra for girls, never heard Muslims from other countries with that name.
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Was Zain not one of the protagonists in the Indian serial Beintehaa?
 
Giannis said:
That's funny cause those are feminine names, Pakistanis get those names from Farsi but I'm sure they mean something else in Indian.
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Indian Punjabi’s especially Sikhs and Hindus of that area usually have the same name for boys and girls. Not sure if Pak Punjab has same culture. For example Navjot Sidhu’s wife is Navjot Kaur etc.

I can only think of Shaheen and maybe Misbah which I discovered today as a common name among boys and girls. Not sure If this is a Punjab only thing.
 
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