I live in the US and want to give my child an American name. A name I really like is "Thomas", which, of course, is a Christian name. I thought it could be justified by Thomas, in the Bible, is a friend of Issa. But do we in Islam believe Thomas as Issa's friend? Thus I would like to know if it would be haraam to name my child "Thomas"?
Answer
Thomas is originally from Aramaic and means "twin". The general rule with baby names in Islam is that all names are acceptable unless they have a bad meaning. Since the meaning of Thomas is not bad, it is an acceptable name for a Muslim baby. Scholars generally do not recommend using names inspired by other religions, but this is only a preference and Muslims are not required to abide by it. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, had a wife whose name was Marya, which is the Coptic Christians version of the name Maryam/Mary. Even though the name was from a Christian background, the Prophet approved of it and did not ask her to change it.
For cultural reasons some Muslims may disapprove of using Western/Christian names, so you will have to be prepared to deal with their disapproval and having to explain to them that it is an acceptable name. From a religious standpoint it is a perfectly halal name.
Reader Comments:
on Monday 3rd of August 2015 11:08:54 PM
this name is not acceptible for muslim .because it is christian name .please there are billions of muslim name you select one of them
on Monday 11th of January 2016 08:50:41 PM
@the commentor who said “this name is not acceptible”:
This name IS acceptable as it doesn’t mean anything bad. You don’t have to use only names in the Quran or any other Arabic name. I think more Muslims need to be eduacted about the naming practice as many seem to think non Arabic names are not good when Islam never states that.
on Thursday 3rd of June 2021 04:16:16 PM
Thomas is a Western European spelling of a very common name. It is the equivalent of Touma, Tuma, or Tumas. People often use names common to their geographic area and native language. This does not mean those people are more or less devoted to religious beliefs.