Whether name reflects on personality

30-1-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. There's a fatwa that I saw here where it says that a person's name reflects on their personality, so if a child is named "Arif", will that reflect on him, Allaah willing?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. 

We mentioned this statement in fatwa 85202 quoting Ibn al-Qayyim from his book Tuhfatul-Mawdood fi Ahkaam Al-Mawlood.

This is something that happens a lot; we mean that the name has an impact on the person who is named with it. If a person’s name is 'Aarif, then he may have a share of his name ['Aarif means the one who knows], and this would motivate him to seek knowledge.

But this is not always the case. Sometimes a person’s name has a good meaning but the person himself is very evil; and vice versa concerning someone whose name has a bad meaning.

In any case, one should choose good names for the children, as this is something encouraged in the Sharia, and the aforementioned fatwa included this meaning.

For more benefit, please refer to fatwas 82724 and 272437.

Allah knows best.