When did the Arabs start to westernize their names?

Answer 1

The underlying supposition, namely that there is a trend in the Arab World to adopt Western names, is flawed in some regions and flatly incorrect in others.

Typically, Jews and Christians in the Arab World have had names with European equivalents for centuries as a result of using the Bible for name origins and their connection to their religious counterparts abroad. An example of a Jewish name: Isaac exists in The Bible and has given rise to the Arabic Is-haq (أسحاق) An example of a Christian name: Georgios is a common Greek name for Orthodox Christians, which resulted in George in both English and Arabic (جورج). A lot of Arab Singers and Artists are Christians, which may result in a skewed perception that Arabs have taken on Western names. (Two examples of this are Nancy Ajram and Nicole Saba of Lebanon.)

In countries like Morocco, where the colonial influence was felt strongly, there was some name cross-pollination among Muslims, but it was minimal. In countries like Libya, where the colonial influence is non-existent in the present day, there has been almost no cross-pollination. Among Muslims, the most common name is H-M-D (حمد) in all of its variants: Muhammad, Mahmud, Hamid, Humud, Humda, Ahmad, etc. Fatima is still a popular girl's name as are Su'ad and Khadija.