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HelpRe: Ida got replaced by...
in reply to a message by guasguendi
In the American context one should not expect a woman named Imani to be Muslim.
It has been quite common the last 50 years for African-American Christians, especially in large Northeastern cities like New York and Philadelphia, to give their children "Muslim" names. The famous singer Aaliyah's parents were Roman Catholics. Former U.S. Representative Floyd Flake and his wife Elaine, who are both pastors in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, named their four children Aliya, Nailah, Rasheed, and Hasan.
Of course many Arabic names which people in the West think of as "Muslim" are just Arabic and used by Arabic speaking Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and other places in the Arabic speaking world where there is still a sizeable minority of Christians. Also, many educated African-Americans would be aware that about 30% of slaves brought to North America back during colonial times were Muslims, so almost all African-Americans with slave ancestry had some Muslim ancestors.
This sort of goes double for names like Imani which are derived from Swahili instead of directly from Arabic. There are quite a few names regularly used by African-Americans which are Swahili words adopted as names, even if they are not actually used as names in East Africa. And Imani is particularly well-known within the African-American community because it is the seventh day of the Kwanzaa celebration. Because of Kwanzaa, there are a lot of African-Americans who probably think of Imani as just an African word for "faith" and who don't think of it as a particularly Muslim concept at all.
It has been quite common the last 50 years for African-American Christians, especially in large Northeastern cities like New York and Philadelphia, to give their children "Muslim" names. The famous singer Aaliyah's parents were Roman Catholics. Former U.S. Representative Floyd Flake and his wife Elaine, who are both pastors in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, named their four children Aliya, Nailah, Rasheed, and Hasan.
Of course many Arabic names which people in the West think of as "Muslim" are just Arabic and used by Arabic speaking Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and other places in the Arabic speaking world where there is still a sizeable minority of Christians. Also, many educated African-Americans would be aware that about 30% of slaves brought to North America back during colonial times were Muslims, so almost all African-Americans with slave ancestry had some Muslim ancestors.
This sort of goes double for names like Imani which are derived from Swahili instead of directly from Arabic. There are quite a few names regularly used by African-Americans which are Swahili words adopted as names, even if they are not actually used as names in East Africa. And Imani is particularly well-known within the African-American community because it is the seventh day of the Kwanzaa celebration. Because of Kwanzaa, there are a lot of African-Americans who probably think of Imani as just an African word for "faith" and who don't think of it as a particularly Muslim concept at all.
This message was edited 4/28/2022, 6:30 AM
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Iman, Imani, Imane mean "faith" and I have only met children of Muslim families named this. It's interesting that in the US this is not the case.
To me, not all Arabic names are the same. Some are way more religious sounding to me than others. I have many Muslim and Arabic speaking friends and most of their names don't bring up a religious image.
Iman and Imane definitely sound religious to me (maybe also because they are similar to "imam"), but Aaliyah does not. Sort of like Jedidiah sounds very religious to me but Sarah does not (even thought it is also Biblical).
To me, not all Arabic names are the same. Some are way more religious sounding to me than others. I have many Muslim and Arabic speaking friends and most of their names don't bring up a religious image.
Iman and Imane definitely sound religious to me (maybe also because they are similar to "imam"), but Aaliyah does not. Sort of like Jedidiah sounds very religious to me but Sarah does not (even thought it is also Biblical).
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