Ali
Frequency: (5756)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ῾Ālī ‘high’, ‘lofty’, ‘sublime’. Al-῾Ālī ‘the All-High’ is an attribute of Allah. ῾Abdul-῾Ālī means ‘servant of the All-High’. ῾Ālī ibn Abī Ṭālib (c. 600-661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was the fourth and last of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 656-61) and the first imam of the Shiite Muslims. His assassination led to the appearance of the Shiite sect.
GIVEN NAMES: Muslim 78%. Syed (227), Mohammed (110), Mohammad (70), Ahmed (53), Mohamed (51), Abdul (36), Hassan (32), Shaukat (32), Ali (29), Muhammad (28), Ahmad (23), Akbar (22).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
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Copyrights:
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names
Dictionary of American Family Names. Copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks. All rights reserved.
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