Somali Name Generator

Somalis do not use family surnames. A person carries three names: their own given name, their father's given name, and their grandfather's given name, so Ayaan Warsame Guled is Ayaan, daughter of Warsame, son of Guled; her brothers share the same second and third names. Women keep their names at marriage. In the diaspora the third name often serves as a surname on paperwork, which is why Somali families in Minneapolis, London and Toronto have last names like Farah, Hersi, Jama and Mohamud that are really a grandfather's first name.

Most given names are Arabic and Islamic: Mohamed, Ahmed, Abdullahi, Hassan, Hussein and the many Abdi- compounds (Abdirahman, Abdiqani, Abdikarim) for men; Fadumo, Maryan, Khadra, Halimo and Zeynab for women. Alongside them sit native Somali names that are just as common: Warsame, Guled, Samatar, Roble, Liban, Shire and Awale for men; Hodan, Ladan, Idil, Hibo, Filsan, Sagal, Ubah and Deeqa for women. Somali is written in a Latin alphabet where x is a throaty h, c is the Arabic ayn, and doubled vowels are long, so the same man is Maxamed Cabdullaahi in Somali and Mohamed Abdullahi in English.

The list covers single given names, two- and three-part full names, Somali-orthography spellings, and the nicknames (naanays) such as Dheere, Yare and Caddey that Somalis attach to very common first names.