Talk:Abdul

recent changes to the article

With reference to the recent changes, there are some points to discuss:

• It's not accurate to describe Abdul as "an Arabic name". It's two Arabic words, which often form part of a name consisting of three Arabic words. I dispute the edit comment "Abdul is used as a name on it's own in Arab countries" and would like to see examples or sourced evidence of it. The examples given in the article are mostly from English-speaking environments. The apparent exceptions are:
  • Abdul Bagi is a spelling of the theophoric Abdul Baqi
  • Abdul Gani is a spelling of the theophoric Abdul Ghani
  • Abdul Jerri's first name is the theophoric Abdul Jabbar
  • Abdul Kardar's first name is the theophoric Abdul Hafeez
  • Abdul Osman's first name is the theophoric Abdul Haq
  • Lida Abdul's original name was Lida Abdullah.
• For the "Derived names" it would be better just to refer to List of Arabic theophoric names
• It might be helpful to cross-refer to the Abdus and Abdur articles

SamuelTheGhost (talk) 20:19, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Furthermore the most recent change, with

• pronunciation= Abd-DOOL

is just unsourced opinion. In practice the pronunciation varies as widely as the spellings. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 20:24, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Response

• Abdel is Abdel, Abdul is like Mustafa, Mostafa is another transliteration that is nearer Mos than Moos. I think the pronunciation bit is fine.

• The Derived names bit, is just a few examples I took, which I think are better listed and more clearer there.

• So an Abdul Aziz (e.g. someone's whole name) wouldn't count because people use that as a first name on it's own.

• "Arabic name" is more accurate at describing Abdul to a phrase. Phrase wasn't a good word to use in my opinion.

JohnCengiz77 (talk) 22:04, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

"Servant"

Anyone who wants to know what "Abd" means can check the Arabic Wikipedia entry on the subject. Or a dictionary. 88.112.50.121 (talk) 18:28, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

i thought El means god?

The Hebrew word אל "el", related to Arabic اللاه "Allah", means "god". The Arabic prefix ال, transcribed formally from Modern Standard Arabic as "al", is the definite article, and is typically pronounced unstressed sounding like "el" or "ul", particularly in a number of Arabic dialects. —Largo Plazo (talk) 20:28, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

so abdel would be servant of god?

As I just explained, "el" is not "God" in Arabic. —Largo Plazo (talk) 22:29, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

Confused list inclusion criteria

The names under the “Given name” heading should only include those in which the abbreviated form “Abdul” has been used independently, as in Abdul Hodge. Names like Abdul Razzak, Abdul Momin, etc. are given names in their own right. عُثمان (talk) 15:06, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

The Abdul#Independent naming section immediately above it validates what you're talking about, of course. So there are two choices: either limit the list, as you propose, to people whose given name (whether their official name or the name that their known by) is purely "Abdul", or to state explicitly that it includes anyone whose given name in full is "Abdul" or whose name is "Abdul" followed by a theophilic. In the former case, yes, people whose given name isn't "Abdul" alone should be removed. (That's a bit complex—there's an Abdul Razzaq in the list where Razzaq appears to be his family name; his son is Ali Razzaq.) In the latter case, there is a massive number of names that would be added to that list. Largoplazo (talk) 15:19, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

@Largoplazo Prior to the independence of Pakistan, most Punjabi Muslims never used family names. With increased modernization and Western influence, the younger generations (equivalent to "Gen X" and beyond) often have their father's first name as a surname, one of the names of God as a surname if their father was a "Ghulam" or "Abdul", or their father’s second name if their first name was Muhammad. Typically men of older generations would only have a second name if their name was Muhammad, to give some way to distinguish them from the many other Muhammads. All that is to say, Razzaq in that context is not really a family name in the Western sense.

The former option is the only one I see as tenable, as there are millions of people with compound "Abdul" given names, but much fewer with Abdul used independently.

In conjunction with updating the list here, all the pages for compound Abdul names could be cleaned up and made consistent in how their titles are spelled.

It would also make sense to link to and mention other cases where an independent name has formed from the article "ul" being attached to an Arabic name prefix, such as the trendy Pakistani girls’ name "Naimul". عُثمان (talk) 17:02, 15 October 2025 (UTC)