3 ms·
Wait, no ... Abou in arabic means "father of ...", so it's in a possessive construct. It needs the other word to make sense. The "ou" is just an approximation,
by aliswe 5y ago
Wait, no ... Abou in arabic means "father of ...", so it's in a possessive construct. It needs the other word to make sense. The "ou" is just an approximation, other spellings include Abo, Abu, Aboo, Bou, Ba ...
Whole of North Africa is filled to the brim with Abou-xyz family names, even first names (Abu Madyan "Boumedienne" in Algeria for example) and also many many such names in the other parts of the arab world.
- zarzavat 5y agoYes, Abu X is a kunya[0]. It could mean that your child’s name is X, or X could be something more abstract and figurative like a nickname. The “ou” spelling of و is French style and would usually indicate a French speaking country or an former French colony. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunya_(Arabic) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunya_(Arabic)
- aliswe 5y agoTarek Abou-Khatwa, my guess on that name (i didnt even read the article, lol) is Morocco? wdyt?
- ss108 5y agoCould be anywhere from North Africa. The possibility that the person is from the Levant from among a family who decided to spell their name in a Francophone way cannot be eliminated.
- mardifoufs 5y ago"Abou" is a pretty rarely used prefix in moroccan names in my experience. We don't really use Abou or Ibn in moroccan arabic. It's usually "ould", "bou", "ben", and in general last names are rarely derived from filial/familial links. When they are, the "abou" prefix just get blended like gp said into for example, Boumedienne. It almost never remains separate. Tribal affiliation is more important (though it is true that Abou-x can be a reference to a tribe instead of a particular family) so you get names like Al Alaoui, Al Idrissi, Al Zitouni etc. To me Abou-Khatwa has more of a levant/gulf sound to it.