Akif

Does that name sound familiar? or make sense? whichever comes first.

I read this name as that of the author of an article in a pakistani newspaper. Now its obvious that the name is Daulat Rehmatullah. However, the author has tried to fancify her name by giving it a twisted spelling. I can live with change in spellings of words/names that have generic meanings.....but in such instances...where Rehmatullah has a very clear and religious meaning to it, what is she trying to accomplish?
And yes, it is a very comon trend nowadays...twisting ur name to suit a western life-style, (in the above case, even while living in the east). Is it that hard to retain an eastern identity? Why does an Allah Ditta feel the need to become an Allan Ditt?

NYAhmadiX

Akif. Certain names are very difficult to be written in Roman. Try some of the Chinese names (with sounds like GHa, XUu, VXu, etc.). Or Arabic/Persian sounds or KH, PH, etc. So people adapt whatever makes more sense. I have seen Bux (for Buksh, as in Allah Bux) Abdur Rehman (for Abdul Rehman), etc. Also the way Arabs write their names are different from the way Pakistanis do. e.g., It is seldom spelled “Ullah”, mostly Allah. e.g., Abdallah, Rafiqallah, etc (Arabs tend to combine where as Pakistanis break it into two, particularly with the names ending in Ullah). Why would you say that it is a ‘western’ thing to do? I have seen Pakistani families (mainly among Gulf returnees) have a tendency to choose Arabic names for their kids (Osama is rather popular these days). Would you say that adopting Arabic names is somehow superior to writing Jan Mohammad as John Mohammad?

Akif

But wont u agree that eastern names (urdu/persian/arabic) generally tend to carry a meaning..whereas western names are usually adopted for the sake of brevity or ease of pronounciation. Rahimtoola is a far cry from Rehmatullah or Rehmatallahhttp://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif

babydoll

Do people have Allah as a name without anything leading it like Abd-Allah ?